


And So I Became A We

by ThatPilotGirl



Series: SKAM8 [1]
Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany), SKAM (France), SKAM (Italy), SKAM (Netherlands), SKAM (Norway), SKAM (Spain), SKAM Austin, Sense8 (TV), WTFock | Skam (Belgium)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sense8 (TV) Fusion, Crossover, Multi, SKAM - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2019-10-11 02:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17438381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatPilotGirl/pseuds/ThatPilotGirl
Summary: Magnus Fossbakken has a piercing headache. So do Emma Borges, Mia Amalie Winter, Martino Rametta, Tyler Nunez, Imaan Elami, Jorge Crespo, and Britt Ingelbrecht.OR: One person from each Skam version is a sensate. Some things change. Some things don't. Starts at the beginning of Skam S1, mostly following the original but I will 100% be adding scenes that I like from the others.





	1. Headaches and Resonance

**Author's Note:**

> I doubt I'm going to get very far with this tbh, (if only because this gives me a LOT of characters to keep track of, several with the same name) but the idea won't let go of me so I figured I should get something on the page. I own nothing.

"You okay?" Jonas asks, as Magnus reaches up to knead his forehead.

"Not really, this headache is killing me. I'm gonna head home. Have fun with Eva and the guys!"

Magnus turns away before Jonas can respond. He knows he's being rude, but fuck, this headache is awful. Do they have painkillers at home? Maybe? As unappealing as going into a drugstore sounds, coming back out after getting to the house would be worse. He makes a quick pit stop on the way home, grabbing a box of the strongest dosage he sees.

* * *

Emma is trying to pay attention as Yann reads her his paper. And she is interested; even if she isn't quite as dismissive as Yann of their generation's "frivolity," she can admit he has a point. And she's a little jealous, honestly, it would be nice to be able to write that well. However, her enjoyment of it and her ability to give feedback are a bit stunted by the fact that her skull feels like its about to split in two.

And then Ingrid walks by and there's something more there, along with the usual pain of seeing her ex-best friend, along with the still-pounding ache in her head. Like for a second, Ingrid is a different blonde, one Emma has never seen in her life. The girl's face twists in confusion, but moment passes as Yann brings her out of her thoughts. Lucas joins them a moment later, and Emma pastes on a smile as the two boys chat. She lies about her grade because she thinks maybe she'll get a bit less ribbing for it. They kiss goodbye, and though she's upset, at least now she doesn't have to hide how much pain she's in.

It isn't like anyone else pays attention to her.

* * *

Britt certainly doesn't mean to make eye contact with her ex-best friend as she walks through the schoolyard with her friends. She can feel the smile slipping off of her face as she does, the hurt making itself known in physical form. Or maybe that's just the headache she's been dealing with for days. Which is also probably the reason that it isn't Jana that she's looking at.

Robbe's voice carries across the yard, something about high school drama unfolding in front of their eyes. Jens shuts him down, and bitterness wells up in Britt's throat.

Of course he's defending _her._

Who cares. Britt has tons of other friends, better friends, friends who haven't-

She can't even think about it, except that she can't stop thinking about it. She pastes her smile back on, tunes back in to the conversation about plans for Friday.

* * *

 

After Gio leaves, Martino calls Eva because despite his jealousy, she'll still one of his best friends.

When she asks him if he's with Gio, he swears he sees someone in his room out of the corner of his eye, even though his friend left a while ago. And besides, even if the guy has Gio's curly and height, it definitely isn't him. He doesn't have Gio's piercing eyes, for one thing, and he's looking at Marti like he's a stranger for another. Marti blames it on the low hum of pain that's been in the back of his head all day, and refocuses on his conversation with Eva.

The gossip is nice, it gives him something to focus on besides the mysterious headache and the mess that is his family. When Eva cuts him off for Gio's arrival, he swears he sees the guy in the corner of his room again. He blinks, and not-Gio is gone.

* * *

The next morning, Jorge's head is pounding even more terrible than it has been for the past couple of days, and his late night hallucinations didn't help. Unfortunately, it is far too early in the semester to skip school, so he drags himself out of bed and pulls on his comfiest flannel, hoping it will make him feel better.

When he gets to school he is immediately distracted by Eva, once again gazing at Ines. Kissing her actually does distract him, until they are interrupted by his friends. Idiots.

He tucks her under his arm, but things fall apart almost immediately when the concert comes up. He's appreciative of his friends as they try and make a way for Eva to join them, but they all know it won't work, and Eva is the one who calls it. Jorge thinks about it for a second longer, then lets himself get swept back up in the gossip.

* * *

 

Shay gets the three of them into the concert, and Tyler thinks this might be the coolest thing that the three of them have ever done. They're just inside of the door when Marlon's phone starts lighting up. He's put good money on it being Megan, but as much as he cares about both of them, it isn't his business.

They move farther into the crowd, and Tyler thanks god that the headache he's been dealing with has started to retreat so he can fully enjoy the music. What's odd though is that the music seems to keep switching around. Mostly its the band that's playing, but there's a couple of other languages that he can't understand. He understands a band playing in Spanish. He thinks maybe a DJ is playing music in German?

Eventually, he and Marlon ditch Shay for a moment to run to the bathroom, and Marlon finally picks up his phone. Tyler can only hear Marlon's side of the conversation, but he feels a crash of loneliness at the words that definitely isn't his own. He might have preferred the headache.

* * *

Mia doesn't know what makes her do it, except that when that random girl calls the redhead a slut, she can _feel_ the sting as if it was her, and not a random stranger that just got insulted. Of course, she has her own history, but this ran deeper than that even.

(There's another hint of another feeling there, something bitterly satisfied at the look on the redhead's face, but Mia ignores that one.)

She hesitates for a moment, figuring out what she's going to say, and then leans over the counter and shouts over the bar to be heard.

"Did you know that women who call other women "sluts" statistically have a 90% greater chance of getting an STD?"

"Really?"

"No. But that would be lovely."

She hears herself say, and the piercing hurt lifts a bit.

(Even the other, well, she'll call it the other feeling, in the back of her heads snorts a little in amusement.)

"I'm Mia."

"Hanna," the other girl says.

("Emma.") another voice echoes.

The pain that's been flashing through her head all week flairs up again, (Why is the band singing in English? She thought there was a DJ anyways? Why is the DJ playing a song in...is that French?) and Mia makes her excuses.

* * *

Imaan prays five times a day, has since she was a little girl. She remembers learning each word to each prayer, scrutinizing different apps once she got a smartphone, to decide which one would most accuratly tell her when it was time for Fajr and Dhuhr, for Asr, and Maghrib, and Isha'a.

Imaan prays during the school day, tucked away in corners.

She prays when she has headaches that feel like they will swallow her whole.

She prays when she is hearing voices in her head; seeing things that are not the home and neighborhood she has known for years.

She prays when she is at peace, and she prays now, when it seems that everything is in an uproar.

The app chimes for Isha'a.

Imaan kneels on her prayer rug, closing her eyes.

She is in a house that she does not recognize. She is walking down a street. She is in a small apartment. She with a group of boys. She is in a bathroom. She is in her own room. She is at a concert. She is with a group of girls. She makes eyes contact with seven other people, three women and four men. They all seem confused too.

She begins the first rakat.

 

 


	2. Add a Friend. (What's going on?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jorge no longer has a headache, Britt is getting annoyed, and Tyler is pretty sure you can't be friends with your hallucinations on social media, so that means these people are real, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, blah di blah blah blah. Thank you to everyone who has decided to come along for the ride! I should mention this will NOT be spoiler free, information we get later in the season will show up earlier because even if one character doesn't know something yet, another character does. And since we're in all of their heads...

Mia doesn't know why, but she's staring at her phone. She scrolls through her facebook feed for a bit, answers a friend from abroad who has sent her a message. Then she switches to instagram, replies to comments on one or two photos and waits.

She doesn't know what she's waiting for, but its definitely something. She switches back to facebook and keeps scrolling.

The, all of a sudden, it isn't her feed that she's looking at. The girl on the screen (Manon Demissy, apparently) is wearing the same shade of bright red lipstick as her though. She seems to be about Mia's height, though she's brunette instead of blonde. Great sense of style. She notices her hand is hovering is hovering over the "add friend," button.

"Do I do it?" asks a brunette.

"Yes," Mia says.

"Okay." says the brunette, and now Mia is the one standing to the side, while the brunette hits "send."

"I'm Mia, by the way. Mia Amalie Winter."

"I'm Emma Borges."

A boy enters Emma's room and Mia snaps back to her own, staring dazedly at her phone screen.

There's a new friend request from Hanna Jung.

Mia hits accept immediately.

* * *

 

Finally. Finally, finally, finally Jorge's headache has dissipated. He's so thrilled to be existing without being in severe pain that he lets himself get caught up in planning Eva's surprise, even taking the bus with Ines so that they have time to talk about a few more of the details. He ignores the little voice in the back of his head-a voice that sounds suspiciously similar to Eva, actually-telling him that it is a bad idea, that Eva wouldn't take it that way, that something is going to go wrong here. It will all be worth it when she finds out.

The voice sighs.

He realizes he should have listened to it when he gets a text from Eva about seeing him on the bus when he's on his way over. He deflects immediately, checking on he mom's status instead of answering the question.

"Because there's NO WAY this is going to backfire," comments another voice, also female and very sarcastic. What the hell?

"How did it go yesterday with the girls?" He asks Eva, and three other voices join hers in responding.

She starts asking questions again, and this time a different set of voices choruses up as he calls his friends video game addicts. That's what, six total if he cares to count?

He spins the rest of his excuse out, kisses her hard, and ignores the last voice in his head, more bitter than any of the others.

"Liar."

* * *

Britt doesn't see Jana come in, but she knows as she walks around the corner that the other girl is going to be there. How? One of those voices that have started since the headaches have stopped. There seem to be seven of them, though Britt has been trying to block them out as much as she can. Two of them remind her of Jana and Jens, and those are people she's trying not to think about. And the one that is suspiciously Robbe-ish gets extra blocks too, by default.

"My name isn't Robbe, my name is Martino. And I don't like it either. The voices or them together."

She redoubles her mental "nope,"s (and what does he know about Jens and Jana being together anyways?) just as she hears Jana's voice asking about a piece of clothing.

Between ignoring the voices, and trying not to look over at where she _knows_ Jana is, she's taken off guard when Jana's mother comes up to her, asking about the cabin.

Jana is shaking head, and the the Jana-voice and Jens-voice ("Emma Borges" and "Jorge Crespo," they hiss at her, annoyed,) have busted through her mental blocks to beg her to please, please, please not tell.

Britt can't bring herself to speak, and part of her wants to bust Jana because y'know what? She kind of deserves it. But it probably isn't a good idea to make the voices in her head mad at her if they're going to be sticking around. She nods mutely through the questions, and makes her excuses.

Emma and Jorge sigh in relief. Martino ("Marti, to friends",) winces in sympathy.

* * *

Martino almost feels bad for arriving early. He knows how much Eva was looking forward to spending the weekend with Gio, knows she was only ok with him coming because she would do almost anything for her boyfriend. But Gio was his _first._ Besides that, he couldn't stay in his house with his mother. He just couldn't. And Eva won't mind that much, and they're friends too. This will be fine.

(Mine. First. One of the head-voices jumps in. She reminds him of Laura, but even as he thinks that, she replies "my name is Britt."

He supposes that's fair, he didn't like her calling him Robbe.)

So he bursts into the house, (and seriously, is it his fault they didn't even shut the door?) only to turn away immediately, apologizing profusely.

He can't really bring himself to be sad about getting to see a shirtless Gio though, no matter how furious. Its odd then, that he feels a deep sadness as Gio beats him over the head with a throw pillow from the couch, odd that he's feeling lonely with the one person he wants to see, odd that-

Marti's staring at an unread text, sent to someone named Jens. A blonde girl is next to him, when she speaks, he recognizes her as Britt.

"He really loves her doesn't he," she sneers. "How sweet."

But Marti recognizes the sadness under the bitter tone.

When he and Gio playing board games and cards the next day, he hears it in Eva's voice, and there's a grim sort of satisfaction.

"See? That's how it feels." he and Britt think together.

* * *

Magnus has been having a quiet weekend. Though he got invited to go to the cabin, he had declined in favor of staying back. It is, honestly, pretty obvious that Eva wants the time with Jonas to herself, and he's not going to get in the way of that. Mahdi seems to feel the same way, so the two of them spend a decent chunk of the weekend playing FIFA and smoking until Mahdi has to leave around 11 on Sunday to make it to late mass at 11:30.

He honestly didn't understand why Isak went with Jonas and Eva instead of staying with them, they had weed here to after all, but the Isak-voice in his head has been giving him a pretty decent idea. He should probably stop calling the guy Isak-voice though, as he has been informed that the dude's name is Martino Rametta. Marti, for short. Magnus suspects this is the point when most people would diagnose themselves as schizophrenic and get to a doctor, but he knows that isn't what this is.

For one thing, Magnus' mother has had her bipolar diagnosis since Magnus was 12, he knows what it looks like when someone is neurodivergent and needs meds. This isn't like that. He's still in control of his own thoughts, there are just other ones there too. He knows it isn't schizophrenia, because that's one of the conditions his mother looked at when she was trying to figure out her own condition, and these voices don't match those descriptions. He supposes he's lucky that his mother was willing to get help, and did everything she could to keep the family informed as she figured things out.

("You are." says Marti.)

For another thing, the voice that reminds him of Eva has told him her name was Emma Borges, and when he looked her up on facebook, she had appeared in person next to him to nod. If she's real, it stands to reason that the others are too. He looks up Marti, and sure enough, the guy on the screen matches the one standing next to him.

"Should I send it?" he asks.

Marti shrugs.

"Doesn't seem worth it if we can just talk like this, does it?"

"True, but at least I knows how facebook works."

"Hmmm. True."

Magnus hits send on the friend request, and then sends one to Emma. He pops over to each of the other voices-

"people. other people" he murmurs to himself,

-and gets their full names, sending a request to each one.

* * *

 

 Tyler will admit: there's another reason that he didn't study daga or whatever-

("Dada. Satirical art movement of the early 20th century, created in response to the horrors of World War One," Says the voice in his head that is apparently Mia Winter of Berlin, Germany.)

-over the weekend.

The reason being that he got a friend request from one Magnus Fossbakken on facebook, shortly followed by one from Emma Borges. There's no reason a guy from Norway and a French girl should know him, except that they match perfectly with two of the voices he's been hearing in his head. After accepting both, he found that they had both added other friends recently as well. There are three more girls: Mia in Germany who apparently knows about art, Britt from Belgium, and Imaan from the Netherlands. The boys besides him and Magnus are  Jorge from Spain, who reminds him of Marlon, and Marti from Italy, who might be Shay in dude form. Its a little uncanny, actually, considering how much Emma reminds him of Eva.

None of them had requested him, but they had all accepted the ones from Magnus and Emma, so he send out a round of friend requests of his own. Tyler also debates following them on insta, but that seems like it would be a little bit over the top so he abstains.

Tyler can feel himself being mean to Megan, but none of them have accepted him yet and he's feeling like he may have made a mistake. He suggests a visit to the vending machine and Marlon agrees, so they leave the girls together to talk.

His phone pings just as his pretzels fall from their slot.

"Imaan Bakkoush has accepted your friend request. Click here to write on her wall."

"Please don't write on my wall." says Imann herself, leaning on the vending machine.

"Okay." Tyler replies.

"Okay what?" Marlon asks.

"What? Nothing. Let's get to class."

* * *

 

 "You're not the only one, don't worry." Tyler murmurs in Emma's ear as she freaks out over the homework, just as Manon whispers "She feels lonely."

"Not helpful," Emma hisses under her breath,

Manon looks hurt.

"I just meant, not helpful that she called on me with no warning." Emma explains. "You are very helpful, and I'm glad you decided to sit with me."

"Nice save." Tyler snickers.

Emma would glare, but she doesn't want to give Manon the wrong idea again so she settles for sending him angry thoughts.

"Aggressive." he comments.

"I hope you're not treating the others like this if you expect them to accept those friend requests," she thinks.

Tyler vanishes and her nonplussed look, (how did he do that? at least one of them seems to be figuring out how this works.) does a good job of doubling for confusion over Manon's friend question, which she thankfully repeats.

"Strong body odor," Emma says.

Manon laughs and Emma smiles, grateful that she seems to be able to make friends outside of her own head. Tyler seems awfully similar to Yann's friend Arthur though, and Manon and Mia keep wearing the same lipstick.

* * *

After school and homework are done, Imaan sits down at her desk with her phone an open exel spreadsheet on her laptop.

She's already said yes to the friend requests from Magnus, Tyler, and Emma, and there's a new one waiting from Mia. She hits accept, then sends out requests of her own to the remaining three.

Then, she writes her own name in block A1 of the spreadsheet. She writes the names on the other seven people in a single line across the top of the paper. Magnus. Emma. Tyler. Mia. Jorge. Britt. Marti.

She stares at the row of names for what feels like a long time. There's something here, she knows there is. There's something in the way Tyler's friend Marlon has the same curly hair as Marti's Gio. The way that Britt had stared at her screen for 20 minutes before accepting Emma's friend request. The way...

"I'm not crazy, right?" she asks out loud.

"No." says Magnus, sounding almost angry. "No one is crazy. Everyone's brain is different, some people's more than others. We just need to figure out what kind of different our brains are."

Imaan nods thoughtfully.

"I want to be a doctor, and my brother is in med school right now. He's always willing to let me look at his school stuff. Maybe there will be something there."

"Good idea." Magnus says, and then, "I have a curly-haired friend too. His name is Jonas, and he's dating a girl named Eva."

"Eva like..."

"Like Jorge's girlfriend, yes."

"And my boyfriend Yann has curly hair too." Emma adds, then mentions the other similarities that she's noticed.

Imaan types as they talk, and when they run out of things to put on the spreadsheet, Magnus and Emma vanish. Alone in her room, Imaan studies the document more until her phone tells her that it is time to pray Maghrib.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "But pilot girl, why these specific eight?"
> 
> Original: Yes, yes, I know Magnus and Mahdi weren't in season one, but of all the changes I'm making with this, that's what you're focussing on? I wanted Magnus to be one of the sensates because though he's a relatively minor character, he has SO much empathy and that's something I sorely needed to help me make this work: someone who is empathetic at their core even without the whole sensate thing. Of the original sense8 cluster, I see him as most similar to Nomi: no matter what's going on, he's going to remind everyone to take a deep breath, and he's not going to get rattled easily. He's also very accepting of other people's differences, and is one of the kindest people in the cluster.
> 
> (I figure posting these will give me another reason to keep going with the story. Next chapter: Emma!)


	3. Turn the Wheel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Girl Squads form, Marti is trying to keep everything inside of his head where it belongs, and Jorge has a conversation with Britt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah I still don't own anything. The lack of "cabin episode" in a few versions is changing timelines a bit, as is the different episode lengths in different versions, but as stated at the beginning, I'm mostly sticking with SKAM OG timeline. If things seem warped out or compressed from the version you know, sorry! Pacing is probably my biggest writing weakness even in non crossovers haha.

Marti is in the middle of quizzing Gio on their history assignment-he swears, if they get one more pop quiz this semester, he's going to scream- when two girls come up to talk to Eva. He's never seen either of them before, but Eva seems to know them, especially since the blonde got her a gift all the way from New York. Strawberry American Jello.

("Lime is better," says Tyler, and Marti is grateful that the others are to busy talking to notice his flinch of surprise.

If this is going to keep going, he's going to need to work on that.

"If you have some maybe I can try it," Marti mutters, trying to make sure Gio and the girls don't hear.

"I don't know if that's how this works, but I guess we can try."

"Bene."

"Cool.")

Tyler vanishes, and Marti zones back in in time to hear the blonde, (Sonia?) invite them all to a party. Some kid he's never heard of's eighteenth. He has no desire to go, and thankfully Gio declines for both of them. He wasn't even lying, they do have a FIFA tournament planned. Silvana (?) refocuses on Eva, this time with the other girl joining in to back her up. She goes on about cats and drugs, and eventually Eva gives in while Marti determinedly ignores the girl trying to flirt. The blonde (Silvia? He's pretty sure Silvia,) tugs her friend away while Eva is still smiling. Her grin remains on her face even as Gio is teasing Marti, and he finds himself happy that she's happy.

* * *

"She's pretty..." Magnus finds himself thinking, as a blonde and a brunette come up to Eva to talk about Russ.

Sure she's very talkative and her friend seems to be trying to seduce Isaak somehow with that spoon but she's also friendly, and clearly likes Eva a lot. Magnus honestly thinks that's awesome, he knows this whole thing post-Ingrid has been hard on Eva and she deserves some good in her life. She obviously likes him and Isaak and Mahdi enough, but some friends of her own would probably of her a lot of good. And besides, its more fun to daydream about Russ then to keep studying for the exam that they're all going to fail besides Jonas anyways.

Eva hesitates when she gets invited to the Russ meeting, but when she says yes, Magnus can't help but smile.

If he's excited that maybe he'll get to see the blonde more, that's no one's business but his own.

("Of course not," says Imann, without actually appearing.

"Shush," He tells her.

Even without her there, he _knows_ she's rolling her eyes.)

* * *

 

The head-voices (he really, really needs to stop calling them that now that they're all friends on facebook,) have all been pretty busy lately, but Jorge can't stop thinking about his conversation with Eva the other night. She obviously suspects that something is up, and it isn't like she's wrong. He's excited about getting her her surprise, but it seems like its going to ruin his relationship along the way and that isn't worth it. Obviously.

"If she's that distrustful of you, can you really be in a relationship?" asks Britt.

"This is a men's bathroom!" he exclaims.

Thankfully, there's no one else in the room to hear him. There's a class period going on right now, he just hadn't felt up to going. Britt shrugs at his outburst, unconcerned.

"It isn't like I'm really here. And I ask again, if she's that distrustful of you, can you really be in a relationship?"

"You didn't trust me." He says, before he can think better of it, and then winces.

"I didn't mean-"

"Its fine." Britt cuts him off, "I think its obvious at this point that there's something odd going on here."

"More loco than all of us being in each other's heads?"

She almost smiles.

"Yeah, more than that."

They let that sit.

"Ines were right not to trust me though," Jorge admits. "I was cheating on her."

"I figured. Jens was cheating on me. But he isn't cheating on Jana with me right now, and you're not cheating on Eva with Ines. Right?"

"No. Her brother makes fake ID's, I want to get one for her for her birthday."

Britt snorts.

"You're a better man that Jens. At least you're doing something nice for her, he's just using me to get to my brother for drugs."

"I want to tell Emma her boyfriend isn't cheating on her, but if Jens and I are technically talking to you and Ines for different reasons..."

"Then he still could be." Britt finishes.

Jorge has been sitting on the window ledge , he leans his head back against the pane.

"What a mess."

"Yeah."

* * *

 

Britt had gone to the library to get a quiet minute to study, not to have a conversation with her sort-of ex. In a men's bathroom no less.

When she gets back to her own mind, she finds that her head is pillowed on her arms, folded over her textbook. People probably assumed she was napping. She'll take it.

She knows she and Jorge don't want to tell Emma about Yann's not-cheating for very different reasons. Jorge doesn't want to tell her in case he is, and she has to be hurt double because she got her hopes up, and Britt doesn't want to tell her because quite frankly, she doesn't mind if Emma suffers like she did. If Yann isn't cheating, at least she'll get a happier ending. And if he is, well, then she'll know entirely what Britt felt. Or, rather, what whatever Britt-clone is running around Paris felt.

She takes a moment to reflect on that last bit. There's another her. Seven more hers really, not the other seven in her head, but the other seven who, if these patterns keep holding, had their hearts broken by their best friend and their boyfriend. The voices in her head, Marti and even Jorge especially if she's being honest, seems to be getting to understand her better and better, but its the thought of those other Britts that makes her feel like maybe she hasn't been aching alone.

(A memory of being called a terrorist by someone she thought was a friend flashes through her head.

"I know what you mean.")

Britt winces, but tentatively adds Imann to the "especially" list.)

* * *

 

"I don't know what the 'heroesparty'" Mia admits, feeling vaguely awkward.

She had slipped into the room after class ended because she noticed Hanna going in, but the other girl had already been seated in the middle of the crowd. Mia had made herself comfortable on the edge instead. She felt vaguely awkward asking, but her, if you don't know, you don't know.

Thankfully, the girl on stage (Leonie, Mia is pretty sure,) doesn't seem to mind explaining. The whole thing seems kind of over the top, but whatever. Mia can't deny that walking down a red carpet would be fun. Its once committees start getting assigned that Mia realizes that this is just going to be a popularity contest for the best jobs. Well, that rules her out. She doesn't bother putting her hand up, though she notices that Hanna and the girls she is with do try for each position. The three of them, along with Mia and a irl witha hijab and a nose piercing, end up on security

Admittedly, it isn't nearly as glamorous Kiki seems to think tending bar would have been, but she figures she'll still make some friends, which is honestly all she really cares about. Kiki seems nice enough, underneath her ditziness, Hanna is obviously great, and Sam accepts her with a smile. Amira hasn't said much yet, but she seems to have the same low-key cynicism running as both Mia herself and Imann-in-her-head.

("I'm adding this to the spreadsheet."

"Spreadsheet?"

"You didn't know?" That's Emma chiming in, and she gives an extra glance towards the girls.

"Spreadsheet." Imaan confirms, "pop over later and I'll show you."

"Can I do that on purpose?"

"Only one way to find out.")

The whole conversation  is over before Mia realizes no one is looking at her funny, so she must have managed to keep it inside her head. She feels oddly proud.

("Teach me," Marti grumbles.)

* * *

 

"We know each other from a Ramadan meeting at the Mosque," Imann says in response to Engel's question, just because Engel has that _tone_ that she's heard a million times before.

She's Janna's best friend though, she can't be all bad. Janna herself laughs at Imann's line, and the other two girls seem to get the joke as well, which is nice. Engel doesn't, but Janna is Janna so she explains it. When Engel keeps asking questions though, Imann can't help the snark. This time though, even Engel seems to laugh a little before Janna gets them back on planning track. Imann isn't going to say it, but she's grateful when Liv makes sure to clarify that she'll only come if Imann does.

Liv might not be wearing red lipstick,  but Imann can see the resemblance to Mia.

She's half expecting a text uninviting her for the next 18 hours or so, but when it never comes, she heads over to Isa's house. There's plenty of plain pizza, which she and Liv help themselves to while the others chow down on the pepperoni pie. And look, its definitely a little clumsy, but she does appreciate Engel's attempt to pick a city where she won't stand out as much for not drinking. Granted, a hijabi sticks out almost anywhere in Europe, but it is the thought that counts. Things are still awkward though, with Janna calling Isa out on the boyfriend vs. own person thing and Liv's parents (or apparent lack thereof) and, of course, the whole loser-group thing.

Imann is pretty sure she's never considered puking a bonding experience before, but Liv laughs at her "Muslim and the Vegetarian," line, even as they both wince at the retching.

After, they all pack in on to the couch laughing, and Imann is pretty sure that its all going to be okay.

("Of course it is," says Magnus, ever the optimist.)

* * *

Yann sleeps over, and Emma watches him for a bit. She knows how cliche it is, but he's so handsome like this, not stressed about capitalism and the free market and everything else. His dream is stupid though, and she laughs and tells him about Imane's dumping comment because she thinks he'll laugh at it too.

(Imann in her head sighs and adds it to the spreadsheet.

"I'm adding asterisks for name doubles, this is getting absurd,")

Instead, Yann sits, well, not quite bolt upright, but he does move fairly quickly. He calls her a sheep, and her new friends a cult, and is just getting in to a rant about her being blinded by capitalism or whatever, but for the first time, Emma can feel herself resisting instead of just nodding along. She doesn't know if its having made friends at school (including, incidentally, Imane, who actually does seem to do whatever she wants instead of just talking about it like Yann,) or if its her new head-mates, but she finds herself fighting back.

("He sounds like Marlon when he gets on a roll about sports culture. Please make him shut up." Tyler groans as Yann gets started again.)

Both boys shut up when her mom gets home, and Emma rolls Yann off of her bed before sparing a second to be grateful that she fell asleep in jeans. She scrambles through her mother's questions until she asks about Emma's weekend. What about her weekend? Did she find out about Yann? Does she know about the voices?

"I'm so bloody hungry," says her mouth

"Excuse me?" her mother asks.

("Well you had to say something!" Tyler exclaims.

Emma shoves him out of her body and proceeds to put the skills she has learned from three way phone calls to work.)

"I'm super hungry"

("Did you have to swear in front of my mother?")

"Can you reformulate your sentence please?"

("I said the first thing that came into my head!")

"I'm super hungry,"

("Why are cusses the first thing in your head?")

"Ah..much better. You cook?"

("Dunno. Bloody isn't even one I use often. Must be your european-ness")

"No"

("...I guess. They don't really use it when I've seen American TV.")

"It's always the same...Mom food, mom this, mom my laundry"

("Sheesh. Almost like she's a parent or something.")

Emma flips both Yann and Tyler off as she leaves the room. Yann's middle finger returns the gesture from behind the bed, and invisible Tyler throws the bird at them both too.

* * *

 After Emma goes off to eat with her mom, Tyler wanders over to the kitchen himself. Waffles. He wants waffles. He grabs a box of dry mix out of the cabinet, dumps a decent amount into the mixing bowl, and then adds the wet ingredients. Finding a spoon takes a minute, but he succeeds and mixes everything together, dumping it into the waffle iron. Only in the Nunez house would that be left on the counter, but the spoon buried in a drawer somewhere, he muses.

While the waffle cooks, he drums his fingers on the countertop, humming one of the songs the band has been working on. He works out a kink with one of the riffs in his head, making a mental note to tell Marlon and Shay about it later.

Shay.

Of the headmates, Marlon seems to be most like Jorge, while Meghan is definitely the most similar to Emma. Britt would be Abby then, he muses. He feels like he probably has the most in common with Magnus, of the head-mates, or maybe Magnus' friend Mahdi.

Shay.

She's gay, he knows it, she came out to him over the summer when Marlon was over at Meg's one day. That means of the head-mates, she's Marti, once Marti admits what the seven of them already know. As near as he can figure though, all of the other Martis are, well, Marti-ish. Namely, white and male. Shay is neither, unless she's trans too, which Tyler would be fine with but he's working with what he knows.

He's not going to lie, he feels a little isolated from the others. Like, he knows they're all over Europe, but at least they aren't an ocean apart from each other. He feels like Shay would probably end up feeling kind of the same way. They other seven are different from each other but she's...more different. He doesn't like to think of Shay being an outcast.

The waffle iron beeps, pulling Tyler from his thoughts. He takes out the waffle, dumps syrup and butter on it, and wolfs it all down just in time for Marlon's text about practice. He'll think more about the Shay thing later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So today, we'll talk about Emma Borges. Skam France was the first remake out, Emma is the series' first main character. I considered using Eva herself, but as stated last chapter, I really needed Magnus, so Emma it is. Using the four mains as half of my cluster is probably a bit cheat-y, but it saves me a little bit of work on characterization and allows me to really tap into skam's plot lines. Also we’re going to be seeing her as Lucas’ friend as season 3 runs. Of the original 8, I think Eva might be the closest to Riley. She's the one who is the most lost at the beginning of the series, the most in need of a place to belong. To me, they're the ones who grow the most through their respective series.
> 
> Request: Tell me how you got here! Would love to know if people are finding this through the OG skam page, or sense8, or one of the remakes...


	4. We will all be judged by...(acting out at the party)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls get their party on, Jorge is feeling guilty, and Tyler's just sick of being stuck in the middle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As per usual, I own nothing. Also, sometimes I notice little mistakes after I've published a chapter, feel free to call me out if you notice something. I've pretty much decided I might as well finish season 1 at least, so maybe after the whole thing is out I'll go through and scrub it clean. Thanks as always for stopping by!
> 
> Quick big picture timeline note: This whole story takes place AFTER the sense8 cluster and their allies took down Evil BPO, and the organization is back to focusing on its original research mission.

"Salaam...Aleikum," Engel greets her, with a wide smile, and Imann can't help but wince internally.

"Hi."

Engel looks confused, but everyone gets distracted by Janna's throat clearing. Imann is glad, she was about a split second from a miniature rant on the fact that she doesn't even speak Arabic at home most days, to just treat her like one of the other girls, wearing a hijab does not make her another species of human.

("The voices in your head might though," says Magnus, perched next to Engel on the windowsill.

He looks at her for a minute, smiles a little, and focuses back on Imann.

"She reminds me a bit of Vilde, Eva's new friend, and her friend could be the same as my Federica. Another one for the spreadsheet I suppose. Anyways, I know you were going to look in your brother's medical textbooks, but I thought it might help you to have something to go off of. I went back through the research my mother and I did when we were trying to figure out what was going on in her head. It seems like other people have had this happen too. There wasn't a lot there, but the term 'homo sensorium' came up a few times. The most I got was that if you think you're 'homo sensorium,' you should contact a group called BPO."

"How would we do that?" asks Mia, in their heads.

"I couldn't find that, I was thinking the medical textbooks might have more information,"

"Good call. And if we're adding your Engel and Janna to the spreadsheet, then we can put Kiki and Sam on there too."

"Okay," Imaan answers. "I'll do that and ask my brother for the textbooks after school."

There's a beat.

"I'm glad we're figuring this out." Imann adds. "I don't like not knowing things."

Mia and Magnus both indicate their agreements before her head is mostly her own again. She's noticed that the feeling of the other seven never vanishes completely, which she's definitely still getting used to.)

Another thing she still hasn't gotten used to is paying attention to two entirely separate conversations at the same time, but she isn't totally blind to the fact that the blonde guy nodded at Isa when he followed his friend by. Thankfully, it appears Isa herself doesn't know anything about the guy either, so Engel and Janna go on their rant about parties and orgies and whatever else. They can't seem to spit out the fact that they want Isa to flirt with the blonde though so it falls to Imann.

("Imane here wanted me to break up with my boyfriend, so at least you're not asking that." Emma remarks.)

"Thank me later," Imann says to the girls, and hopes that this works like it does on TV.

* * *

After school, Magnus follows Mahdi, Isaak, Jonas, and Eva on to the bus. Its a bit of a tight fit, but they squish in to one set of seats. Isaak immediately pulls out his phone.

"Who is this Julian Dahl on Insta?" He asks

"No idea," Jonas replies.

Magnus doesn't know either, but he somehow doubts that the dude is stalking Isaak. He doesn't want to say it out loud though, but Mahdi does and the two of them spend a minute busting Isaak's balls. Magnus still has an ear on Eva and Jonas though, he is sitting right next to the redheaded girl.

"Eva doesn't want to tell her mom we're together," Jonas tells them, bringing the conversations back together.

"Why not?" Isaak asks, which Magnus thinks is a little naive.

Jonas brings up a dinner together, and Eva's phone chimes with an Instagram DM from someone named Chris calling her a stalker.

("Do NOT tell him," says Emma, standing next Mahdi and hanging on to the overhead rail of the bus.)

Eva hasn't even noticed that he saw the message, though it would be hard to miss that she's not fully focused on making dinner plans with Jonas.

("I won't." Magnus says, then hesitates. "Do you need...help?"

It isn't the best way of expressing what he wants to ask, but he thinks she knows what he's trying to say. She gives him a hesitant smile.

"I think it will be okay. Thank you for asking though."

"Hey, what are shared brains for?")

"Friday," Eva tells Jonas, and then proceeds to call him and Isaak out when they're being dicks about the Russ Bus.

Magnus feels proud even though he didn't do anything.

* * *

"Istagram stalking seems to be in," Marti observes in his mind when he notices all of the likes and comments from "Guila Med."

At least, he hopes its in his mind, and he hopes that someone heard him. He's not quite sure that there's a way to make sure they do.

Thankfully, Magnus snickers while Emma winces and Imann rolls her eyes, so he must have done something right.

"Poor Lucas," Jorge remarks, "He doesn't seem to have an Insta stalker,"

"I'll see what I can do," Imann snarks back, and Emma shoves at her playfully.

"Noooooooo," she whines, "I already have enough on my plate with Yann and Alex"

"Well I speak Spanish," Tyler comments, popping in to the conversation.

"And you just might be his type."

"I'm everyone's type bro."

"What do you think Marti?" Jorge teases.

Marti has been paying more attention to the conversation with Eva and Gio, mostly letting the others poke fun at each other while they sway in the bus aisle, but Jorge's words bring him back. He can't bring himself to reply though, because yeah, being in his head means that they've figured out that he's gay, but that doesn't mean he wants all of the people across Europe and the US outed because he's got a weird thing happening.

They seem to sense his panic.

"Don't worry dude, Shay already came out to me."

"We won't tell," Mia adds. "We're pretty decent human beings, believe it or not. Also, I'm bi if it makes you feel better, and I'm sort of out. If you need one of us to talk to about it, I'm here."

"Does that mean Manon is too?" Emma queries.

"Or Liv?" Imann adds.

"Dunno," Mia replies with a shrug. "But can we all agree right now that no one outs anyone?"

They all nod, and even though Britt doesn't appear, they can all hear an extra "Okay"

One by one, everyone vanishes, and Marti is left to tease Eva with Gio once more.

* * *

 

Hanna texts them all in the afternoon, telling them that she has secured a group invitation to the video shoot. Mia flops back on her bed and sighs, not particularly thrilled about it, but she did promise herself she was going to be more social. Also, Kiki's excitement is a little bit infectious, and while Mia doesn't need to know every single step of her deciding what to wear, she can't deny that its kind of fun. Soon enough, all five of them are arguing over if black shoes or grey would go better with Kiki's outfit,  red or black leggings for Hanna, and whether or nor Amira should wear a hijab with the lace.

"You too huh?" says Imann, perching on Mia's desk chair.

"Mmmhmm. Kiki is obsessing over some boy named Alexander."

"And Daphne is head over heels for Charles," Emma adds, plopping down next to Mia on the bed.

"And Engel want to hook up with Noah."

"Every girl at school wants to be with Senne, so I can only assume Amber does too," observes Britt, also taking a spot on the bed.

"We can all agree this isn't going to end well, right?" Mia says. "Like, these girls seem to be in love with them, and they're definitely the one-night-stand types."

"Oh definitely," Britt answers, "But I didn't listen my brother when he told me, and I doubt any of you are going to get anywhere either honestly."

They all sigh, knowing that she's right.

"I kinda feel guilty..." Emma says, "Like I'm setting her up to get her heart broken."

"If Daphne is anything like Kiki is, she wasn't going to stop until she got into that party one way or another," Mia says. "Better that we're there for her to watch her back. I assume you're getting in?" she directs at Britt.

"Yep. Senne buys from my brother same as half the school, so I'm pretty much in to anything. I'm not babysitting _your_ friend though."

Imann isn't thrilled, they can all tell, but she doesn't say anything about it.

Instead, she pitches her voice slightly high and goes "So girls, what _are_ you wearing to the party?"

Mia asks for help choosing between the black dress and the dark red one, and the four of them spend a while comparing style choices. All in all, Mia thinks, not a bad way to spend a Thursday evening.

* * *

 

Jorge gets to the party he's going to before any of the girls get to theirs, and he's glad of the noise. It will be nice, he thinks, to be present rather than wandering all over the continent.

("And America!" Tyler adds,"

"And America," Jorge concedes.)

Sure enough, the night starts out great. He, Hugo, and Dilan are having fun messing around, and he can hear Eva laughing even across the party. How could he not? Its one of his favorite sounds. He drinks straight from the bottle, jostling with Hugo while Dilan pours, and works his way through a cigarette. Eventually, the three of them wander over to where Eva and her friends are hanging out, and he offers them some of whatever alcohol it is they've been drinking. Gross it may be. but booze is booze.They're discussing the end of year trip when Lucas gets back with the ice. Jorge takes advantage of the bustle to kiss Eva, and then Chris suggests Truth or Dare.

("Oooh, mature" Mia giggles.)

The whole clump of them plop down on the ground, and Chris volunteers to go first. Of Eva's new friends, she might be his favorite; she doesn't seem to be afraid of anything. His opinion is confirmed when she makes her way across the circle to kiss a very dazed Hugo.

And then Amira

(Imann screams a little in his head in frustration,)

asks about Ines and he's grateful for Nora and Lucas' intervention but Eva says she has it covered. It's amazing, actually, how she manages to tell the truth-about the close friendship, about Ines passing out at the party, about the other girl's strict parents-without telling the most important part. The other girls defend her, and Jorge can read the guilt on her face as well as he feels it himself. The game goes on, and Eva takes a long swig from the bottle. So much for a relaxing evening at a party.

(Britt's silence is deafening.)

* * *

 

Britt is furious, but she has her own party to be having fun at and she ins't going to let some couple in Madrid ruin her night out. Its enough-almost, a least- to feel Jorge's guilt in her head, to know that the whole thing put a damper on his evening. Emma's unhappiness is there as well, and whatever goodwill had been built up by them choosing outfits together is gone.

Britt takes another swig of her drink, just as Jana, Amber, and their friends arrive. Jana, at least looks uncomfortable, and Britt experiences another small moment of satisfaction. This is dashed, however, by Amber coming over to chat as if they're all best friends. Thankfully, she wanders off fairly quickly when she notices Senne standing by the drinks.

("Guess you were right," Mia observes, looking amused

Britt's not feeling up to being overly friendly, but she does love being right, so the two of them share a quick eyeroll.)

Both Amber and Senne vanish fairly quickly after that, and Britt lets herself get swept back up in drinking and dancing. There are plenty of cute guys to flirt with, and Sarah is so off rhythm when she tries to dance that trying to keep her on beat is a hopeless task. They drink more to give them an excuse, and Britt lets herself be distracted. The whirl of experiences from the other parties honestly makes it even better; there are more lights flashing and more beautiful people to look at, and Tyler's band is pretty talented. He sends his thanks even as he focuses on playing the song.

Jana's friend Luca walks by then, and Britt thinks about Jorge's friends supporting Eva. All of a sudden she's mad again, and before she knows it, something about Amber being a slut is coming out of her mouth.

Luca throws a drink at her.

(Imann throws a drink at her. Huh. That's different.)

The point is, Britt is now covered in some sort of alcohol, and she is _not_ happy about it. Before she can say or do much, Jana (and Emma, and Mia) come and yank Luca, (and Imane, and Amira) away (Imann broke off on her own, her crew following), and then they're all out the door.

Britt is left with seven voices screaming in her head, a dress soaked in booze, and bile rising in her throat.

So much for a fun night out.

* * *

Tyler is so, so, so not here for this.

Between the Drama at everyone's parties, and the Drama between Marlon and Megan, all he wants to do is lock himself in his room and play until he falls back asleep. It wouldn't take long either, they were up late for the gig last night.

Its actually super unfair, he thinks, as Megan shows up. He should be celebrating right now, because the show really did go amazingly well. They played great, the crowd was responsive, and hell, even Britt-in-his-head complimented him on the band's music. He does get a second to talk about it, him and Shay bouncing back and forth telling the story, and Megan definitely does seem genuinely happy for them.

("Of course she is," says Emma, "You guys were incredible." and for all the general brain chaos right now, everyone seems to agree on that.

It makes him feel marginally better.)

Meg not being at the concert looms over the four of them though. Marlon breaks the standoff, asking about the dance team, and Tyler winces internally. It isn't like its a bad thing that Megan is finally getting friends again after the whole Abby thing. Its just really unfortunate that the timing worked out the way that it did. Shay is staring intently at the guitar in her lap, and Tyler eats another chip to avoid being expected to say anything. He hates that he's literally between them right now. He's known Megan for a while, they all have, and he knows there's probably a good explanation for why she wasn't there, knows how much she adores Marlon, wishes that they could just have this conversation together somewhere that isn't here.

Megan mentions Kelsey, and Tyler winces. Being told he's like one of her new friends is probably the last thing Marlon wants to hear right now. He's proven right when Marlon walks away, but Tyler is happy, if not hopeful, when Megan follows.

("Maybe they'll work it out?" says Magnus)

Tyler gives them about a minute of talking to each other across a foot that looks more like a mile before he calls over to request a coke instead of a mountain dew. Another minute passes, with Tyler watching out of the corner of his eye.

At least they kiss goodbye before Meg leaves.

* * *

 

Emma is ready to scream in frustration. Yann is clearly mad at her about not meeting up on Friday, but he's making her think that its all on her. It isn't! It isn't right? She texted to apologize, he ignored her. _Merde_. There's no way his phone was dead this entire time. And he's ditched her for his friends before, hell, he's invited them in. Her mind jumps back to the cabin. Why is he making her feel like this is all her fault?

Or: did he really not care that much about the meeting in the first place? Does he really not mind her missing it? Was she making up him wanting to meet up so badly in the first place? Has she been imagining things this entire time? What the hell is going on?

("Gaslighting," Mia supplies.

Emma makes a mental note to look it up later, while Tyler winces because apparently, he's watching this twice at the same time.)

Yann gives her the option to stay, and a few weeks ago, Emma would have said yes. Would have sat to the side while he and Lucas and the guys played video games, soaking up any scrap of attention that Yann sent her way. And if she had left, she wouldn't forget to kiss him goodbye.

When their lips meet, its distracted, and when he asks her to call, she can't help but wonder if he'll pick up.

Yann slides back on to his spot on the couch, barely glancing at her as she leaves, and Emma ignores Jorge, leaning against the doorpost, on her way out.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're going to talk about Mia today! 
> 
> Druck is currently running Mia's season, and I love what they're doing with it to be honest. Mia and Alexander have been talking a lot more than Noora and William, and I like that a lot. She seems to be giving Alex less wiggle room than Noora did as well. I'm looking forward to continuing to watch, and using what we keep learning about Mia in the story. Also, 2nd remake, 2nd main.  
> Of the original 8, I see Mia as the most similar to Sun. She isn't a physical fighter, but she is always willing to put herself on the front lines of a confrontation to help her friends. Both of them are soft hearted, though they don't let that get in the way of Getting Shit Done. Mia also has a bit of a messed up family story, though we don't know her specifics yet, leading her to rely on her found family more than her biological one.


	5. Are you ready? (What Would Mia Do?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus does a LOT of research, Imann, Emma, and Mia prepare their friends for a big event, and Marti is experiencing a case of TMI (...and deja vu. thanks Tyler.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing.
> 
> I ended up going back to canoon episode 4 for France and Austin, I didn't like always tagging them on to the ends since their episodes are about one week ahead. Austin had no cabin episode, France's episodes tend to run a bit longer, and Spain moved the cabin episode tohere, so things are definitely a bit chaotic with the writing process. I think its turning out OK though.

Magnus spends most of his Sunday researching BPO and avoiding both texts from his Norway-friends and head nudges from his mind-friends, besides Imann. Apparently, she talked to her brother on Saturday, and he was able to give her a couple of books that had mentioned Homo Sensorium and BPO. She hadn't had the chance to really read through them much though, with the party and all of the drama happening.

"So much drama between everyone," she grumps from her seat on his bed.

"You're all up to date now though?" he checks, "There was a _lot_ of drama from everybody in our heads, and I'm sure with your girls too."

"I'm all up to date," she confirms, "Now lets figure out what's in our heads."

While she reads things from her brother's books, he writes things down that sound like they will probably be important. His list starts with "Homo Sensorium," and "BPO (origins, fall, and restoration)," then goes on to "Sensate," "Psycillium," "cluster" "sharing," "visiting,"  "August 8th cluster," "Battle of Naples," "Paris Accords," and "The Archipelago."

"I can't read any more of this." Imaan comments after most of the day has gone by, with breaks only for food and her prayers.

Magnus shrugs.

"That's fair. You've been doing most of the hard work. Thanks for getting all of this for us."

"Sure thing! Talk soon?"

"Sure."

She disappears, and Magnus turns back to his own laptop. (Truth be told, he hadn't even noticed that he was sitting at her desk for most of the day)

Sensate, apparently, is just the nonscientific name for homo sensorium, which works out nicely because they're born in groups of eight. Clusters of eight. Psycillium is the brain chemical that makes homo sensorium exist. The Archipelago is what sensates use to communicate, using either visiting or sharing. He's still a little fuzzy on the difference, but again, all their research points to BPO as the group to talk to for more. He finds the company website. There's a tab for the history of the company, a tab for "Sapien resources," a contact button, and...

Aha!

A tab at the top labelled "Main offices,"  opens a drop down menu listing Chicago, Mexico City, Buenos Aires,  Sydney, Johannesburg, Dubai, Nairobi, Mumbai, Moscow, and Berlin.

And they just so happen to have a (he checks his research,) cluster member in Berlin. Magnus clicks on the page and sees the address of the building, contact information, and faces of people who he assumes work there. He copies the link and sends it via facebook message to Mia since its a bit much to memorize.

Checking the time, he realizes how late its gotten. He'll stop by a cafe for coffee on the way to school tomorrow, he decides. He deserves a reward for all of his hard work.

* * *

Eva gets her lunch, and Jorge follows her away from their friends and over to a table. They settle in and she pours her beverage. She drinks the juice, and he drinks in the sight of her. She's been looking happier lately, since she found her new friends, and Jorge is happy for her. He must admit, he wishes they had more time together though, so he asks if she remembers their weekend together.

"How could I forget?" she giggles.

They reminisce for a moment, and he reaches out to take her hand.

"And why don't we repeat?" he asks.

He's not entirely sure that Lucas and his family will let them use the house, but he thinks its a pretty sure shot. Besides that, he wants to spend another weekend with her. Things have been so up and down lately with Ines, and the party, and everything else. He wants to go back to being the people they were over the summer, for those five perfect days. he expects her to latch on to the idea immediately, but instead, Eva's face falls. She's looking over her shoulder, presumably at her friends. Maybe he should have checked if they had plans?

"Don't you feel like it?" Jorge asks instead. Eva's smile comes back, and she agrees to the weekend away.

He kisses her before going over to talk to Lucas, who says that of course they can use the house, but he's worried about things with his parents. If things blow up there, Lucas will join them. Jorge agrees to the conditions, and doesn't bother to tell Eva.

He ignores all of the voices telling him how bad of a plan it is.

He should probably know better than that by now.

* * *

"What's wrong with that first floor bathroom where you usually hook up?" Tyler asks Marlon and Meg.

He's glad they're getting along again, really, but do they need to be practically humping each other right in the middle of the locker section? Seriously. Its a little gross.

"Shut up," Marlon groans at him, pulling Meg into his chest.

He doesn't seem mad though, and Megan is smiling too, wider than he's seen for a while now. He figures it couldn't hurt to push a little more.

"What, you don't think everyone knows that you two are smashing in that bathroom by the nurse's office?"

Again, they're still smiling, and Tyler takes a moment just to soak it in. It feels like forever since they were just able to laugh and joke around like this, and it feels good. For a minute, he forgets about all of the shit in his head, all of the tension over the missed concert, all of the everything. And look, Kendrick tickets would have been incredible. Marlon is over the moon though, and Meg is obviously thrilled. He knows Shay is probably let down a bit (honestly, he doesn't know _how_ Meg has missed her crush,) but he knows that she wants them to be happy. Shay is participating in the ribbing too, after all, and for a second, Tyler thinks that they're going to make it through a whole day without anything crazy happening.

And then a _very_ squealy blonde comes up to greet them, trailed by a Latina girl who is definitely doing something interesting with her drink straw. He supposes he should have seen this coming; he knows Meg had made new friends and he knows that most of the brains' new friends have met the boyfriend-and-friends already.

 _Fuck,_ but this is weird.

(Marti is snickering in his head.

"Well, I guess we found your Silvia and Fede.")

"Funny," Tyler says to both Marti and Jo-which-he-will-be-pronouncing-the-English-way-thank-you-very-much.

Kelsey goes on about the dance team and a girl named Zoya for a while, and Tyler lets Marti take over his movements since he's well practiced in the avoiding eye contact routine. It apparently isn't enough to deter her though, since she still asks if Shay is his girlfriend. He'd say yes, but he doesn't want to put her in that position so he tells the truth and denies it. And regrets it immediately when Jo then starts flirting in Spanish instead.

He could have just pretended not to understand.

Fuck.

They both wander off eventually though, and he and Shay go back to ribbing the happy couple. He is weirdly happy for Meg when she sticks up for the girls though. He thinks that might be Magnus' influence.

And then its crucial that they leave because he's gonna puke if he has to watch them kissing any more, and Shay will either punch a wall or cry.

* * *

 

"Dude, you are never gonna believe what Eva is doing right now," Gio greats him, when they meet outside the gates after school.

Eva herself if nowhere to be found, although he thinks he can see the back of her head a few blocks down. She's with one of her new friends, the tall one, the one who, according to Imann's spreadsheet, is her "Mia" friend.

If that's her Mia friend, then they're probably going to the free clinic, to get Silvia on some birth control. However, there's no way for him to actually know that for sure, so instead, he says, "no clue," to Gio and lets his friend confirm.They snicker over the idea od helping a friend lose their virginity although, Marti feels obligated to point out, guys wingman each other all the time.

"Man, I was so scared though," Gio adds, once they've stopped snickering. "No way I'm ready to be a dad yet."

(Jorge is nodding his agreement.)

"Eva switched to the ring recently though, thank goodness. She says its so much easier not having to set an alarm every day to remember about the pill."

"Man, I don't need to know that," Marti groans.

He already essentially knew it through Emma anyways, but it's one thing to have it as something he's just kind of aware of, and another to have it be as something he knows for certain about someone he sees nearly every day.

("You do basically see me every day too," Emma points out mischievously, and she and the other girls snicker a bit at his discomfort.

"On that note though, you really should tune out for a while, I have a feeling things are going the get _very_ detailed at this clinic visit." Mia adds.

"Will do.")

"Hey, you're going to have to start worrying about this soon enough too," Gio points out, "You can't go through all of school only flirting with girls. One of these days, you're going to actually find someone you want to do more with"

He's not entirely wrong, Marti thinks; he's just wrong that its going to be a girl. According to his furtive googling, he will have to know how to use a condom though, pregnancy risk or not. He's not quite ready to say and of that to Gio though, so he offers up coffee at a cafe to move the topic along, and Gio agrees. As they walk, they decide on FIFA at Gio's after, and Marti crosses his fingers that the game will be enough to distract him from three different girls worrying about birth control.

* * *

 

Imann's happy that her brother loaned her the books (without asking too many questions, thankfully; he knows she wants to be a doctor too,) and that Magnus was able to do more research. However, Mia's so busy that she doesn't know when she's going to be able to go to the address they found. Hopefully, this clinic adventure will be a good distraction.

("You can all just...go to a place like that?" Tyler is exclaiming. "We learned about condoms and bananas on the internet. Shay told me the school nurse didn't even have tampons for her one time. Damn.")

Imann spares a minute to feel sorry for him, (they all do, really,) but then the stupid anatomical model falls apart when she picks it up to look at it and she and Liv get distracted giggling over putting it back together. Isa is smiling too, which probably means she and Kes have made up. The doctor comes to call Engel in soon enough, and the poor girl looks petrified. Religious or not, Imann doesn't think she'd ever have sex if she was that scared of...well, it seems like everything about it really.

Nevertheless, she follows the other girls into the room, letting Isa and Liv take the chairs next to Engel. Isa definitely has more experience and Liv...

("Don't assume." says Mia sharply.

"If all she's done is kiss, she still has done more than me," Imann points out.

Mia still looks a bit shaken, but tilts her head in acknowledgement.)

But when Engel seems to be about to go on one of her gushing rants about Noah-the-perfect-boyfriend, Imann can't help but speak up. She feels validated when Liv back her up, like maybe she didn't screw this up too badly. She knows Engel is already mad at her over the whole drink-throwing-incident. Engel, however, stays the course in that way that only the hopelessly naive can.

"If I'm understanding it correctly, this will be the first actual penetration?" a few doctors ask at once.

Engel confirms it, (as do Daphne and Kiki,) so the doctor talks about pregnancy and STD prevention before pulling out a floppy rubber penis and a condom. Engel looks uncomfortable, Isa and Liv giggle, and Imann rolls her eyes, feeling a bit uncomfortable. It's one of those moments where she feels her _otherness_ acutely. This isn't the sort of thing Nice Muslim Girls talk about. On the other hand: when she gets married she's not going to want kids right away, medical school will make that difficult, so this is important for her to know this too. She sticks around for the condom shopping afterwards, then heads home when the others decide that they're going to practice putting them on.

* * *

"I definitely think Manon is bi," Emma observes to her selves as the girl in question crawls across the bed towards Daphne.

(Mia props her elbow on the corner of Emma's chair and watches, a smile playing at her mouth. She winces when Daphne asks about Manon's virginity, but giggles with the rest of them at the look on Daphne's face as Manon gets closer and closer, at the high pitch in Daphne's voice when the blonde explains "lesbian stuff," is not her thing.)

Manon plops herself back on the cushions, and Alexia, for some reason, decides that donkeys are going to be the ticket for getting Daphne hot. Manon shuts her down, thankfully. Emma can tell that Manon is probably about to talk Daphne through getting hot, like Mia and Liv are doing for Kiki and Engel, but they are interrupted by her mother summoning her downstairs.

She doesn't know _how_ she lets the girls talk her into staying, its like having four extra voices in her head. She's just reassuring her mother that Yann is on his way, when a shrieking giggle carries down from her room.

"What was that?" her mother asks.

"I think it's my laptop. I'll turn it off" she says,

("Impressive," Tyler observes)

and flees back up the stairs.

Or.

She attempts to.

She's barely halfway up when someone knocks at the door. She can do this. It will be fine. This is probably Yann, and while her mother is distracted, the girls can sneak out and meet up with Charles somewhere that isn't. her. house.

 Except, when she opens the door, Charles is there.

(And so is Alexander.

"You're fucked." Tyler observes.)

* * *

Kiki greets Alexander with a cheerful "Hey!" apparently oblivious to everyone else's discomfort, complete with "you don't mind right?" when she says she asked Alex to pick he up at Hanna's.

Mia feels like she should be saying something, but she can't think of what she would say that would make things less weird, so she keeps her mouth shut and her eyes on Hanna (And Emma,) in case something comes to mind.

"This is not my boyfriend," Hanna explains to her dad, who seems fairly confused.

"Nope, he's mine," Kiki giggles, and Mia feels a rush of secondhand embarrassment, but still, there's nothing she can do.

And why is Alexander looking at her? He should be looking at Kiki! Kiki is gorgeous and sweet and head over heels for him, and he's picking her up to presumably take her virginity. There is no reason for Alexander Hardenberg to be looking at Mia Amalie Winter, and she even double checks her head to make sure she's not seeing things.

("Well that might just be weirder," Tyler snickers.

"Not. Helpful."

But Emma says that Charles was looking at Manon, so Mia feels a bit better.)

Kiki says goodbye to them, and then the door closes and she, Hanna, and Sam collapse against each other, giggling. She supposes that isn't the worst it could have gone, and Hanna's father let them carry on though he was definitely bemused by the whole situation. It really is getting close to when Jonas said he would be coming, so she and Sam say their goodbyes as well, leaving Hanna alone with her dad.

Outside, Mia and Sam decide that Sam will be the one to text Amira with updates about the evening. They split off with one more cheerful hug, and then Mia starts her walk home. On the way, opens a map to double check exactly where the Berlin address of BPO-who-can-apparently-help-them is. It isn't right next door to her neighborhood, but it isn't crazy far either. She checks the time on her phone. It's definitely too late to go now, but she replies to Magnus saying that she'll try to head over soon.

* * *

Blonde Ambition doesn't have anything planned for Friday night, so Britt just invites Sarah over to hang out and do their nails. Its easier with three people, because then you can sit in a triangle and one person doesn't have to curl up their legs to make the length even when you're doing each other's feet. Picking only one of the other crew girls would definitely lead to drama though. Britt is ready for a break from Drama.

Sarah gets to her house after dinner, and they put on Legally Blonde as they dig through Britt's massive nail polish collection to find the colors they want. Then they settle in on the couch.

"Where are your parents?" Sarah asks, putting the first coat on her hand.

"Some charity event," Britt replies.

 They watch the movie for a while, talking idly about the Blonde Ambition girls, and Britt's brother's friends who keep flirting with her when he isn't paying attention.

"Hey, can I ask something weird?" Sarah says, right about the time that Elle is handing Callahan her resume on screen.

"What's up?" Britt asks.

"Are you...okay? I know you were pretty shaken after Jana and Jens got together like that."

"I'm fine," Britt replies, which is getting closer to true every day.

"Okay," says Sarah. "You've just seemed...really out of it lately. Like you're somewhere else."

Shit. shitshitshitshitshit. It isn't that she doesn't trust Sarah, but their group is pretty gossipy in general. And this is big; this is much bigger than a crush, or even than a friend's betrayal. Britt hesitates, because maybe telling someone outside of the whole thing would help?

(She looks up to see Magnus next to the TV.

"I think you would be really brave to tell her." He says, "Goodness knows none of the rest of us have managed yet."

"Why are you waiting then?"

"I'm going to wait to see what Mia finds out. I'll tell them after that, probably. Maybe not about all the spreadsheet stuff" -which is how they've collectively been referring to all the weird parallels in their lives -"but about the voices. It will hopefully be a bit easier to prove,since we're all on facebook."

Britt thinks that that's kind of optimistic, but she can't deny that whatever information Mia find out will probably be helpful. She decides to follow Magnus' lead an wait until then, and he dissapears with a cheerful goodbye.)

"I think something might be happening with my friends abroad." Britt says to Sarah.

Sarah won't find that too weird, she knows that Britt has done some traveling.

"I'll tell you if more happens."

Sarah accepts this with a nod, and swings her toes up into Britt's lap to be painted. On screen, Elle just got one of Callahan's internships.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I obviously needed an Isaak clone, and I wanted a version that we had a full season for. Third remake, main series third main , keeps with the theme of the above two. One of my biggest problems with SKAM is actually Isaak's storyline in season one because, as Spain points out, it kinda plays into some negative stereotypes about gay people. We might end p with a more spain-like storyline for him
> 
> Of the August 8th cluster, I think Marti is the most like Lito. Their homosexuality leads to feeling of isolation; for Lito its in the acting community and for Marti its from his friends. They both try for hypermasculinity to try and hide. Beyond being gay, both Marti and Lito are very emotional characters. We see this mostly manifested as a flair for the dramatic, whether that be Marti pushing Luchino outside of the club, or Lito screaming over the phone when he is stuck in traffic. And Marti's "minute by minute" speech is DEFINITELY something that Lito would say to Hernando.


	6. Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus and Tyler have a difference of opinion, Imann is frustrated, and everyone seems to have a different definition of the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As is the usual deal, I do not own anything. Sorry for the longer delay, my weekend was pretty busy (and heartbreaking. dammit rams! you had one job. On the other hand: first Jewish superbowl MVP, so that's pretty nifty i would say.) Also, as of last chapter this is my longest story, and in the top 5 for comment threads. Thanks for being here everyone :) ANYWHO, chapter six!

Eva invites him to hang out, and she sounds so sad on the phone that Marti can't bear to say no. He's her friend, he cares about her.

When he gets to the steps, shes staring forlornly out at the water. His first priority, he decides, should be to make her laugh. The ridiculous cat bed for Silvia, shaped like one of those creepy underwater fish from Finding Nemo, provides ample opportunity. She's still spacing out though, so he bonks her on the nose with the "lantern" of the fish, then goes for broke and just puts his head inside of it.

He can't see her like this, but he hears her laugh and counts it as progress.

(Emma rolls her eyes, perched next to Eva on the stairs, but she giggles too.)

"What did you guys end up doing last night?" Eva asks.

(He asks.)

"Last night...nothing exciting," He replies, as does Lucas.

"What about Saturday?" He and Eva inquire.

Marti both says and hears his excuse, Eva and Emma both pretend to brush off the question.

He's not letting this go though, not when both girls are twisting their hands nervously.

Eva thinks Gio was with Laura, Emma thinks Yann was with Ingrid.

(Jorge was with Ines, Britt was with Jens. Neither of them were hooking up.)

"I'm not stupid," say Eva and Emma, and Marti is suddenly angry because no, they're not.

How dare Gio use some excuse about his mother? Why would he think that Eva would fall for that, would fail to recognize her former best friend's voice on the phone. Marti's crush on Gio is as strong as ever, but right now, he kind of hates the guy.

"And what did he say?"

Eva replies that Gio had his usual answers, and then he's watching the scene, looking at Emma from across his own body and Eva's while Britt is the one to speak.

"Let me ask you a question. How can you be in a relationship with someone you don't trust?"

(Jorge has shown up, though he isn't saying anything. Marti kind of assumes that he and Britt have talked this over before.)

"What do you mean?

"I mean, either you trust him completely and stop torturing yourself, or you decide that everything he's been saying is too much bullshit to deal with and break up with him." Britt says, still using Marti to say it.

Marti takes himself back.

"Enough, you can't keep feeling like this. You deserve better."

(Britt's lips purse at his last sentence.

"You deserved better than this too." he tells her.

She acknowledges this with a tilt of her head, but still doesn't seem thrilled. Marti can't say he blames her. He probably should have said all of this to her too. Jorge has been silent throughout, but still very present, and Emma has been mirroring Eva. Marti doesn't know if its conscious or not. Her conversation with Lucas is going about the same though, so Marti figures its probably a bit of both.)

"What would you do if you were in my place?" Eva queries.

"You can't ask me that, Gio and I are like brothers."

(A wave of warmth comes from Jorge; Marti is glad that whatever is going on with Spanish-him

-"Lucas,"-

Jorge will be there)

"I can't tell you," Marti says, "But maybe you can do something else."

"Like what?"

Marti hesitates, sighs,

(Britt says, "I'll tell the truth,")

and suggests asking Laura.

Eva nods slowly, when she glance back out over the railing, her gaze is focused far off in the distance.

* * *

Magnus has to admit, he isn't exactly enjoying this.

Jonas and Eva are glaring at each other across the schoolyard, exchanging fake smiles. Eva's obviously mad, she has the right to be, and Jonas is pulling his innocent act. Magnus wants nothing more than to yell at his friend for it, but Jonas only told Isaak about meeting Ingrid's brother, so there's no way Magnus would know. He was only able to confirm that Eva and Isaak talked by mentioning to Isaak that he saw them through the cafe window, which Isaak confirmed.

Emma's mind is in turmoil over whether or not to ask Yann about Ingrid.

Britt is a blank slate. She told Marti and Emma she would tell the truth, and Magnus trusts her, but he's not sure if he should.

Jorge is-Magnus doesn't even want to tough that mess right now.

On top of all of that, Mia has a few exams this week, and a party on Friday so she's not going to be able to go to BPO and ask questions.

He's distracted from his thoughts by Sana and Chris gliding by on their hoverboards. Chris is giggling as always, and Sana is deadpan, but she's done a couple of spins so there's no way she isn't enjoying this at least a little.

("Oh, she definitely is," Imann chimes in, amused.)

Also, there's a cut under her eye, so Magnus assumes there was some vaguely embarrassing incident that no one will dare to ask about.

After they scoot away from the other girls again, the Penetrators walk by and one of them-Magnus is pretty sure his name is also Chris-pauses for a moment to talk to Eva. Magnus assumes that its the party invite Alex has just extended to Emma, and Sam to Mia by way of Hanna.

Jonas glares across the courtyard. He makes an obnoxious comment about hoverboards, but its obvious which of Eva's visitors he's actually annoyed at.

* * *

Tyler disagrees with Magnus. Sure, all of the drama isn't exactly great -Shay told him directly about smoothies with Megan,- but honestly? None of it is affecting him directly. Don't get him wrong, he's definitely worried about Emma, and he thinks Marlon is being a real dick.

Britt probably deserves better than to be stuck in the heads of a bunch of people she never wanted to think about again,

( _"Thank you."_ she tells him.)

but Jorge brought this whole thing on himself, and Tyler, for one, thinks it will be good for him to work it out instead of relying on Eva to always be the pliable one.

(There's a deafening silence from Spain.)

He kicks back at Shay as she thrusts her feet in his direction, laughing, reaches out to grab her hand,

"Trust lean bro, come on."

They inevitably fall back on to the stone, but they're both laughing when they sit back up.

It's then that he notices Marlon looking over their heads at Megan.

"You ok dude?" Shay asks their lead singer.

Marlon gives half a smile and a shrug in reply,and Tyler goes back to paying attention to Shay, who is demonstrating some sort of reflex thing with her knee.

He is _not_ going to let all of this ruin a good morning with friends.

* * *

"It was so great with Alexander," Kiki is telling her and Hanna.

Mostly her, Hanna seems fretty out of it, honestly.

"You know what he told me?"

"No, what?"

"That my belly is super pretty. Isn't that cute?"

Mia has to admit, it is kind of cute.

"Oh, really?" she replies, because if Kiki needs to talk this out, then Kiki should talk this out, no matter Mia's personal opinions on the guy in question.

She continues on, Mia making appropriate reactionary noises. Kiki talks about his hair, the sex, his huge dick, the fact that that might be why she didn't come, and that's when Mia feels like she has to actually say something.

("Please do, I really don't need to know about Daniel's dick size," Tyler groans.

"Maybe Kelsey is telling Megan that his is super tiny," she teases.)

"The size isn't an indicator of whether you'll come or not," she explains to Kiki.

"Well, you're the sex expert," Kiki answers, with more sarcasm than Mia has ever heard from the other blonde.

Mia bites her lip against all of the things she wants to say, that when it comes to guys being assholes, she is an expert, that she hopes Kiki never goes through what she did. But she's building a new life here, away from all of that. And besides if Kiki never has to even think about the things that happened to Mia, then that will be a good thing.

But then they switch to the topic of condoms, and Hanna tunes back in to ask why he didn't want to use the ones with lube. Mia tends to agree, but Kiki is acting like they didn't use a condom at all so Mia asks to be sure. And of course, of _course_ Alex pulled a latex allergy out, pun semi-intended. He walks by then, and ignores Kiki's smile and cheerful wave. Mia's heart falls with Kiki's face, and then they get distracted by Sam's arrival.

Mia can't help but smile, and hopes that hopefully, things will get worked out at this party.

("Wouldn't bet on it," Britt comments, drily, and secretly, Mia can't help but agree)

 

* * *

Imann is repinning her hijab in the bathroom, absentmindedly listening as the other girls chat about Noah's lack of responses and always peeing after sex, which she supposes will eventually be good information to have.

Even with her lack of experience though, she has to admit, contact via snapchat alone doesn't seem to be a great way to maintain any sort of relationship.

(Mia and Emma confirm this; Kiki and Daphne seem to be in similar situations)

And then Engel says she sent a boob pic. Imann can't bring herself to argue with Janna's "nice one," so she doesn't do more than glance up from her cellphone, where she's looking at the website for BPO Berline.

("Sorry, sorry," Mia says, but Imann brushes her off.

They've all been busy.)

Liv, on the other hand, seems to have no qualms questioning Engel's behavior, and Imann winces slightly when Englel calls her a baby. Engel has _no_ idea what Mia, er, Liv, has been through, and to act like she's somehow a prude or wrong for

("Hey. She has no way of knowing. It's okay."

"No it _isn't"_ Imann and Emma reply, in sync.)

Liv does seem to be handling it okay though, asking if Noah has responded.

There's silence when Engel says that all he did was take a screenshot. Its echoing through the hallway where Emma is walking with Daphne, and the oddly pink bathroom where Mia and her friends are. It reverberates and builds and its probably only a few seconds, but for Imann, feeling it build on itself, that is far too long.

"Listen, if no one's gonna tell you the truth, I will. Noah doesn't like you. He's just ghosting you. Please don't be naive."

Apparently, though, Engel is even more naive than previously assumed, since she doesn't even know what ghosting is. Neither does Isa, for that matter, but she's been in a steady relationship for a while. The term is relatively new, so Imann can't really blame her. It falls to Janna to help her explain.

And then Engel tries to lecture her on playing "hard to get," and Imann loses her patience. No, she may not be sleeping with guys, but she's not totally oblivious to the world around her. Before the hijab, she had even talked to a few boys, all of whom had mysteriously vanished when she started wearing it. And of course, there's...nevermind. Point is, she knows a whole lot more about men than Engel seems to think, and all she is really trying to do here is get between her friend and the hurt that is barelling towards her like a freight train.

"If he doesn't reply, he doesn't like you. End of."

Engel picks up her bag and storms out (with a brief return for her cranberry juice,) and the rest of them are left in silence.

And then Imann cheats her way through the "guy is lying" conversation, picking behaviors from Emma's brain.

(There's a bit of protest, but mostly just resignation. Apparently Imane is saying the same things.)

Isa storms out. Imann wants to slide down against the wall and scream into her hands, but she has class. She says goodbye to Liv and Janna, and leaves the bathroom herself.

* * *

 Another weekend, another party, and Britt is feeling the buzz. She looks cute in her outfit, and she got to make out with some cutie earlier in the evening. Besides all that, her red sash makes an excellent accessory for dancing. It swishes around her body along with her long blonde hair, and Sarah still can't stay on beat but Britt is in Berlin and Paris and Utrecht, so she isn't really either. Hehe. Beat boys. On beat.

(Emma takes a deep breath.)

Britt walks up to her, asking if she was with Jens last weekend.

(Ingrid seems to want to do the small talk thing, but Britt isn't really in the mood.)

She fakes thinking about it for a moment, then answers in the affirmative.

"Yeah. Yeah, he came by."

(Marti is screaming, but Britt told the truth, and that's all she promised to do. Did she see Jens? Yes. Jana didn't ask about context. Marti is not impressed. Neither is anyone, actually. Even Magnus and Tyler, who are usually the most relaxed of the bunch, seem pissed off.

"I. Didn't. Lie." she repeats again.)

"Didn't he tell you?" She asks, innocent. "oops."

"Fuck off."

"No Jana. You fuck off. BITCH."

(Emma flinches.)

Britt tries to get back into dancing, but it feels like something is gnawing at her stomach.

Isn't revenge supposed to be sweet?

(Magnus sighs.

"Don't be an idiot Britt." he says, sounding tired.)

 _Well?_ Isn't it?

* * *

Emma has no idea who's room this is, but its away from the party and there's a door she can close, and there's no one having sex.

(Britt's "BITCH" is still echoing in her head.)

Emma sinks down on the bed, doing her best not to cry and ruin the makeup that took way to long to put on. She's sending her message to Yann-might as well keep the "fuck you" going-when Alex comes in on the phone, apparently giving some poor lost soul directions to the party. He hangs up when he sees her though, and Emma tried to pull herself together a bit as he comes to sit next to her. She notices, somewhere in the back of her head, that they are wearing matching eyeliner. If she wasn't so miserable right now, she might laugh.

Alex doesn't push, surprisingly enough. He lets the silences sit, doesn't ask why she's lying about being ok, why she's hiding, what she and Yann fought about. For all his flirting, he seems to mean it when he says he's sorry about Yann.

His arm is warm around her shoulders, and he strokes her arm smoothly, not even trying to cop a feel. His lips on the side of her head are a sweet gesture; she can't remember the last time Yann did anything like that. He doesn't tell her not to cry, just holds her against him while she shakes with tears.

"Y'know what? Fuck that guy." He tells her, once her breathing evens out a bit.

"Yeah," she says, because wasn't she just thinking the same thing?

"Any guy who makes a beautiful, interesting, nice girl like you cry is clearly an asshole. Fuck him."

And Emma nods because she is. She is beautiful, and interesting, and nice, and Yann told her that himself after the cabin, but he sure as hell hasn't been acting like it lately. Alex is looking at her, and he wants to kiss her. She wants to kiss him, if she's being honest with herself. He's a good looking guy, and he might be almost as much of a fuckboy as his friend Charles, but at least she knows what she's getting into with him. She nods again.

His lips are warm and slightly chapped; his hand is warm and rough as he cups her cheek. The metal of his ring is cool against her skin. Honestly, he's a fantastic kisser but...

She pushes him off.

"No, I can't. I can't do this."

"Why?"

"Because...I just can't that's all."

Because its too soon. Because they were flirting before and this would feel like cheating. Because she didn't pick up Yann's call. Because...

"Are you serious?"

The door opens, and Alex introduces her to his girlfriend,

(and Britt is screaming in her head for fucking things up again, and Emma is screaming back, calling her a hypocrite though she can't quite figure out why,)

and Emma leaves the bedroom in a daze and she knows she should talk to Daphne, who is watching Charles and Sarah kiss forlornly but she just...can't.

And then she walks home.

And there Yann is, waiting on her doorstep.

* * *

Emma is walking up to Yann, and Jorge can hear footsteps, so he knows that Eva is behind him. He doesn't turn around though, lets her make her way to him at her own pace. She collides with the garbage can though, and he can't help but smile even as something inside him cries out at her red nose and the bags under her eyes.

"Hello beautiful," he greets, because even like this, she is.

"What are you doing here?"

"I've texted you but...you haven't even read the messages."

She nods in acknowledgement.

"So," he starts again, "I lied to you. I mean, about the football match. So, I wasn't really playing."

She walks closer, sits down.

"I already know Jorge. I overheard Ines in the background with you."

He rubs his nose. He knew Emma had heard Ingrid, but he had hoped...he doesn't know what he had hoped.

"Fuck."

He sits back down, next to her.

"Yes. I was with her. But it's not what it looks like."

"Oh, isn't it?"

"I mean, technically, yes, but no," he replies, digging in his pocket and questioning his word choice even as he says them.

"I was with her because of this." He finishes, and hands her box.

She takes it, hesitantly, tugging at it with shaky fingers.

"You're going to break it!" he says, trying to get a reaction, but she just curses.

He takes the box back

"This way, this way,"

And opens it for her.

"Happy Birthday in advance! You're already 18," he tells Eva, as she gazes at the plastic card.

(Tyler is grumbling about the drinking age in the US being 21, but that's pretty irrelevant right now so Jorge tunes him out.)

"This is why I was with Ines," he explains. "I went to get the ID. That's why I've been around her the last few days, actually. Her brother makes fake IDs."

Eva sobs, and Jorge is internally panicking. From what he can tell, all of the other Jorges were involved with their respective Ines' brothers because of drugs in some form or other. He's mad at them for being so damn shitty to their Eva's.

(Emma especially, since he's experiencing her shock and sadness over Yann smoking weed)

He'll worry about that later. For now, he needs to pay attention to his Eva.

"But don't cry! Why are you crying?" he exclaims.

"Because. Because I'm the fucking worst," she says tearfully, and he assumes she means she kissed someone like Emma did.

"I assumed you were sleeping with Ines and I promised you that I wouldn't doubt you again," she explains instead.

"Hey. Listen to me. Nor one more word, ok Eva?" he asks, because honestly, even if she did kiss someone, the fact that she sees not trusting someone as a greater offense says a lot about who she is.

"Enough." He adds, for emphasis.

She's still weeping though, still trying to explain, and he pulls her to him, tells her he trusts her,

("Not helping," Emma says, and if anyone would know it would be her so he stops talking)

presses a kiss to her hair, and holds her tight.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! Today is Tyler day, AKA, only-version-I-can-legally-watch day.  
> Skam Austin 2nd season currently filming, woohoo! Considered using Shay, realized that the female:male ration wouldn't work, plus Marti has a season. I also like getting into the heads of the boy squad members, and Austin gives us someone besides "Jonas and Isaak" in season one. Tyler it is! Sorry to break the above pattern though :( Also, Tyler is definitely one of the most easy going characters in the series, and with everyone else (especially our mains) pretty stressed out all the time, there is a severe need for someone who can just sit down and chill tf out.  
> That last bit is the reason that Tyler is my Capheus. No matter what happens, he believes that things are going to work out for the best. Tyler is always willing to jump in when his friends need a hand, whether that be jumping in to speak to Emma's mom, or making sure that Shay always has someone to talk to. Capheus's joy and awe at the world around him can be seen when Tyler was describing their gig to Megan.


	7. Human/Messed up/Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus helps Marti make a decision, Mia has a big week, and Tyler and Britt find themselves on the sidelines.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything. I'm sorry I've been gone so long, things got a little crazy there but hopefully I'll be able to finish this story without another long break :) Thank you to all the people who have stuck with me, and new people who have found the story in the interim. As always, comments are loved and it would be super cool to know how people found this story; extra shout out to the people who have already told me! 
> 
> ALSO we're definitely going with a more Skam Espana-esq story line for how Jonas etc. find out because the "destructive crush on a friend" is a really negative stereotype of gay people and it isn't cool of skam OG to use it (or for most of the others to follow suit.) As an openly bisexual gal myself, I love that Skam gave us a healthy queer storyline in season 3 (and bisexual Alexia in Skam France is my goddess) but we can't ignore that they screwed up on this one.

Everyone is talking about Kiki and Alexander, Rose and Jack, but Mia is distracted by Kiki's fork, scraping cucumbers and onions and tomatoes into separate little piles. Mia can practically do the math, practically count the calories in each one herself.

"Kiki, what exactly are you doing there?" she asks.

"I'm sorting my salad," Kiki explains, as if this is a thing that everyone does.

As if its normal. Healthy. As if she's not doing the math same as Mia, although Mia has learned to ignore the part of her brain that is always counting.

("Are you seeing this?" she asks Imann and Emma.

Emma spares a though long enough to nod, Imann also confirms. Imann also switches into doctor mode almost right away, trying to see if there seem to be other symptoms. Mia thinks that its too early to see many of them, but she appreciates that Imann will be on the lookout.)

"It is sorted now." Mia says to Kiki, who slowly puts one piece of cucumber in her mouth.

The topic switches back to the party then, and Emma's misery deepens. Mia can see Hanna's face fall as well, so she tries to change the topic back to Kiki. Instead, it comes up that other-Sam has a girlfriend. Jonas walks into the cafeteria then, and Hannah gets up to greet him with more enthusiasm than Mia thinks is strictly necessary for a Monday morning.

("Tell me about it," remarks Magnus.

"She doesn't even have to feel that guilty." Imann says.

"She cheated on him." Britt comments drily. "Not that he doesn't deserve it"

-"Hey!" Jorge interjects-

"You know that's not what I mean." Imann answers, "I mean she doesn't have to feel that guilty about kissing Sam when he has a girlfriend. He also hooked up with-"

Britt groans. The eight of them see the whole thing laid out in front of them, a mess of betrayal and jealousy and secrets.

"Why can't everything just be normal," Emma wails, slightly hysterical.

"This week." Mia says, "This week, I'm going to go to BPO headquarters, and maybe we can get at least a little bit of the way back."

There is a collective sigh of relief.)

The bell rings, signalling the end of lunch. Kiki, Mia notices, hasn't eaten more than two pieces from each of her carefully made piles, but she's out of time to think about it right now so she heads off to math.

* * *

"This." Marti says when they get to the pool, "Is awesome."

He doesn't know Cardilli found the place, but its perfect for messing around on their boards. The slope into the deep end and slanted edges are good angles for practicing tricks, and Marti can totally see someone dragging a rail or two out here in the future and putting them in the deep end. Marti skates a bit himself, and then he, Eva, and Elia takes videos of each other and the skaters. Eva and Gio are adorable as ever, but somehow Marti doesn't mind as much. She climbs out of the pool for a break for a second to get cell phone service, and he and Elia go back to skating. It's about as perfect of an afternoon as he can think of and when he knee complains a bit after a sketchy fall, he perches next to Eva in the stands.

"I see it's better between you. Have you fixed things?" He asks.

"Yes, we talked and everything is OK," She replies, though her face falls a bit.

(He can feel Emma on the verge of tears.

"Don't ask. Let her tell you." she says.)

Sure enough: "In reality...I'm the one who messed up," Eva says.

"What did you do?"

"I'll tell you, but you have to promise me that you'll never tell anyone, ok?"

"I swear. What happened?"

"No, listen, it's important."

"It's ok, I won't tell anyone," he says, meaning it.

Eva and Emma both take deep breaths.

"You remember when you told me to ask Laura if she'd been around with Gio, right? Well I did. And she told me she was-"

("I _was."_ Britt insists)

-"And I was such an idiot that I believed that he was cheating on me when all he was doing was getting your stupid weed. I was drunk and angry and sad and nervous and I don't know why the fuck I did it-"

Her words are tumbling over each other now and he wants to pull her into his arms and tell her that its going to be ok but he knows her has to let her get this out at her own pace.

-"I kissed Fede."

He pretends not to know who she'd talking about, hoping to lighten the mood a bit, but she's blind to all but her own guilt and clarifies.

"What do I do now?" she asks him.

For a second, a lot of ugly thoughts run through his mind. He could ruin the relationship with this if he used it properly.

("She is your friend." Imann hisses, angrily. "Friends do not do that to each other.")

"It was just a kiss right? Nothing more?" he asks, trying to sort out his thoughts and buy some time.

"Of course! I kissed him for six seconds, maybe."

"Six seconds isn't a tragedy." He says to her, "There's no point in telling him and making a big deal over nothing. I wouldn't want to know if it were me."

("I'm straight." Jorge says. "Nothing is going to change that.")

Marti makes his decision.

"Since you have told me this, I'm going to tell you something as well. Something you can't tell anyone, not even Gio."

She nods.

"I think...no. I know. I'm gay."

Her eyes widen and then she's pulling him close.

"Okay." She says in his ear.

"Marti, are you trying to steal my girlfriend?" Gio yells up at them, and they break apart, half laughing and half crying.

"Absolutely!" Marti calls back jokingly, still with an arm around Eva.

She leans her head against his shoulder and for a second, he thinks everything might be okay.

* * *

After the skate park, Magnus walks home with Isak since they live in the same direction. Mahdi is headed to the library and Eva and Jonas are off to do whatever. Isak is quiet beside him, and Magnus doesn't want to pry but honestly, he's a lazy guy and life is going to be a lot easier if Isak just tells him what's going on. He's torn though, because he doesn't want Isak to betray Eva; he knows Eva must have sworn him to secrecy same as Italian-Eva and Emma did.

"Eva kissed some Penetrator guy at a party." Isak blurts out, and well, that's one moral quandary solved and about a million more started.

"How do you know?" Magnus asks, to buy himself a minute.

He's betting that Isak is having the same sort of thoughts about leverage that Marti was. He hopes he can talk Isak out of it the way the others did for Marti.

"She told me." Isak sighs, "And she told me not to tell anyone."

"Well..."

"I know. But part of me wants to tell Jonas. And I thought maybe if I told you, the urge to tell someone would go away."

"How do you know that she won't tell Jonas?"

"Because I told her not to. I told her it wasn't a big deal, nothing worth telling him about. Especially now that they seem to be back on track."

"Then why would you tell him?" Magnus asks, immediately worried that he's pushed to hard.

Isak goes quiet for several blocks while Magnus mentally bangs his head against a wall.

"I'm gay." Isak says, finally, in such as small voice that Magnus isn't even sure he heard it.

"Okay." Magnus says, and that seems to help because Isak take a deep, relieved breath.

"And I thought that if I told Jonas about it then maybe...I don't know. It sounds stupid when I'm saying it out loud."

Magnus hesitates again before settling on, "It doesn't sound stupid Isak. But it does sound mean, and you're _not_ a mean guy. And you are a good friend, and telling Jonas wouldn't make you a good friend to him or to Eva."

Jorge jumps in then.

"Jonas is straight, Isak, we know that. He can't change that any more than you can change being gay."

Magnus takes back over.

"I can't know what its like for you right now. But I've had crushes who didn't like me back before, and I realized it was better to be friends with them, no expectations, than to worry about why they didn't see me like that."

They're both silent for the last stretch until they get to Magnus' house.

"Thanks."

"Any time."

* * *

When Manon drags Daphne off from lunch the next day, Emma shrugs at Alexia. They follow the other two girls until they're at the big window that overlooks the schoolyard.

"Okay, see that girl." Manon says, pointing at a brunette on a window sill.

"Charles fucked her. and her, and her, and her," she continues, gesturing towards other girls wearing the jersey.

Emma keeps half her brain on the scene in front of her, while she types out a message to Alex with the other.

"What happened has to stay between us," she sends.

"But they could have gotten the shirt anywhere!" Daphne protests

"Return the jersey, and get your dignity back," Manon tells the blonde girl, pulling her into a hug. "He's the one who is wrong. Not you."

Emma tries very hard not to think about what shape her dignity is in right now. Fortunately or unfortunately, that's the moment when Yann and Lucas show up. Emma decides that, for the better or worse of aforementioned dignity, the best way not to think about Alex's lack of reply is to kiss Yann thoroughly in greeting.

("Not again," groan several voices in her head.

It isn't her fault that she and her alter egos apparently try to sooth their guilty consciousnesses in the same way.

"Mia, didn't you say you were going to BPO at some point this week?" Britt asks, as a fairly obvious distraction.

"Yeah, I should be able to go after school today." answers the German girl. "Magnus, are there specific questions I should be asking?"

"From what I could see on the website the whole place is set up for people like us, so it should just be a matter of walking up to the front desk and telling them you're pretty sure you're _homo sensorium._ Then they'll walk you through everything from there.

"Okay." Mia replies, still sounding nervous.

"You're going to be great!" Tyler tells her, his optimism palpable from an ocean away.

They all chime in with her agreements, Emma included.)

She tunes back in to the "real" world - whatever that means anymore- to Yann dropping her off outside of her next classroom. She thanks him with another kiss, then goes inside to try and pay attention, even knowing that this very evening, she might know a brand new set of information about herself.

* * *

The day is beautifully sunny and Jorge is in a good mood. Eva wanders outside after class and greets him with a "Hey handsome," and together they watch Hugo and Chris talking. Both look happy, but its pretty obvious that Chris only wants to be friends. Hugo, Jorge knows, is angling for something more, but he's also the genuinely nicest guy Jorge knows. He'll be fine.

When Chris leaves, he and Eva walk up to Hugo themselves.

(For a second, Jorge is heading down a street in Berlin next to Mia on her bicycle, and he shoots her an encouraging smile.)

The two of them take a moment to bust Hugo a bit over the Chris thing, but when Hugo mentions the "friendzone" thing they stop immediately. They comfort him as best they can before he goes to catch the bus, and then its the two of them again.

"I think its cool that she was honest," Jorge tries.

He's not trying to make this hard for Eva, but he thinks it will be better for them- he _knows_ it will be better for them if she fesses up now. She lets things eat at her, and he doesn't want to let that happen if it doesn't have to, Not least because he's hiding a huge secret of his own.

("Not for long, hopefully," Mia says, locking up the bike.

She pauses next to a sign at the door that says "ATTENTION NEW SENSATES: Do _not_ make eye contact until you reach the front desk. A first visit outside of the cluster can be very overwhelming, and we want to make sure your transition to sensate life is as smooth as possible. Welcome to BPO, we're excited to help you and your cluster however we can!"

"Got it?" Mia says to everyone.

"Got it," they all reply.

Mia pulls open the door.)

Jorge is tugged back to Madrid by the buzz of his cell phone announcing a game. Who gets up at 9am on a Saturday anyways?

"Jorge?" Eva says, sounding worried.

"Just a second," he replies, ostensibly focused on his phone but really spending most of his effort on not going to Berlin to find out what's going on there.

By the time he realizes what she must have wanted to say, she seems to have chickened out. He makes a stupid joke about her insane appetite instead of getting her back on topic. They walk towards Eva's house together, and Jorge does his best not to get distracted by all of the information that Mia is learning in Berlin.

* * *

Imann has to admit, she didn't think Engel had it in her. But the other girl stands up to her just fine, calling Imann out on the fact that yeah, she has been kind of a bitch. If she wasn't riding so high on the fact that Mia went to BPO last night, 

("And seriously, you all need to visit Berlin ASAP, or whatever HQ is closest to you, I have to go right now but we all need to talk soon when we have more than 10 seconds so we can really talk about everything together, its so crazy, but it should all be in your heads now so you can know all of it, at least, that's how they explained it to me..." she had gushed when she left the building)

then Imann might be a bit more offended but again, Engel isn't entirely wrong. Her apology is sweet though. The giggles of the friend group remind Imann that she has a place where she belongs right here in Utrecht too. 

"Hey, look over there," she nods as Noah walks into the courtyard.

("Here we go," says Emma.)

The four of them follow Engel over to Noah, who is walking and rolling-well, Imann honestly isn't sure if its a cigarette or a joint-but he's walking and rolling something at the same time. Nevertheless, he's paying enough attention to not walk into Engel when she stops in front of him.

"Hi,"

"Hey,"

There's an awkward pause while he finishes rolling the whatever-it-is, tucking it behind his ear and holding out his hand for the sweater.

"Here you go" Engel says.

"Also," she continues, "I wanted to tell you that I'm glad I only had a crush on you for a little while, and you have to learn how to treat women with respect. And I've got too much self esteem to walk around in your jumper like I'm one of your conquests."

Noah's face remains impassive throughout, and Imannn keeps hers the same way while a million thoughts build up in her head. She's proud of Engel, sure, but she has a feeling that this isn't going to end well. Emma obviously feels the same way about Daphne's confrontation with Charles, and Mia's thoughts towards Alexander are approaching deadly.

"What's your name again?" Noah asks.

"Engel. My name's Engel."

Imann worries her lip, now, because she knows, she just _knows_ something is about to go terribly wrong.

"I think there's a misunderstanding here, Engel. Because you're not attractive enough to be one of my conquests."

Imann can't see Engel's face, but the speed with which her friend ducks away speaks volumes. The four remaining girls and Noah are left to look at one another in odd silence, but it isn't going to stay that way for long. Imann can feel Mia's rage ready to boil over, and through Emma's eyes, knows that Manon is far from pleased. She knows what's going to happen even before Liv steps forward.

"You're so amazing" She says.

"Who are you?"

"Look. I don't know _what_ your problem is, but you must have such a major inferiority complex if you feel the need to make a girl three years younger than you cry in public. Were you never validated as a kid? Is that it? Did your dad never compliment your drawings? Did your mom not cuddle you enough? or...maybe a little too much?  You were bullied because you didn't have hair on your dick in middle school? It was a girl right? She broke your heart in kindergarten? Whatever it is, it's time to get over it and become a decent person. Stop walking around like a fucking cliche."

Liv finishes him off with a couple of pointed comments about his image, and the four of them follow her away, Imann sparing a second to smirk at the asshole on her way by.

("That." Britt says admiringly, "was savage.")

* * *

Tyler is lounging in the courtyard with Shay (and Britt, they're kind of flickering between Austin and Antwerp with the mix of languages as a relaxing background hum) as Friday afternoon break starts the way most Friday afternoon breaks do: Meg and Marlon kissing. It seems like they take forever to separate, but he's happy that they're both happy. And hey, since he talked Shay down from her insane, half formed scheme to use the Penetrator Joe Kiss to separate them (Thanks Magnus, Marti, and Jorge for the help,) he thinks that there's a possibility that they may stay that way. 

Meg wanders over to her friends after Tyler goes to class, and the five of them are chattering over something on someone's phone. The mood seems to shift though, and Tyler follows Kelsey's gaze over Megan's shoulder to see a group of girls storming across the courtyard in their direction. As one, Megan's friends rise behind her. The girl in the lead, with a striped shirt, hits Meg across the face. Not even a slap, Tyler notes, although its a pretty terrible punch the way her wrist bends.

Zoya makes the next move, yanking the other girl back by her hair as she continues to try and pummel Megan.

"That's Jo's girlfriend." Shay observes.

"I thought you said you weren't going to tell anyone?"

"I didn't. Hang on. Someone was talking about an Instagram account the other day..."

Shay messes around on her phone for a minute before pulling up the relevant account, and scrolling to the post about Joe.

("Are you guys seeing this?!" He asks, before he feels hair that's definitely to long to be his get yanked, and had a flash of worry about his hijab coming loose.

Magnus is helping to separate the two groups.

Guess that answers that question.)

Some guys separate the two fighting groups of girls, but Joe's girlfriend, who according to Instagram is named Cleo, screams "You FUCKING WHORE," at Megan before friends drag her away.

"Holy shit." say both Shay and Magnus.

Tyler thinks that sums it up quite nicely.

* * *

 

 Britt isn't thrilled to be watching Jana and Jens (and Meg and Marlon) make out, but she has to admit, hanging out with Tyler is fun. He's super chill about pretty much everything. Britt could use a bit more chill in her life. Also, Austin has better weather than Antwerp at the moment, so she's happy to soak up some sun while good-naturedly poking fun at Tyler's shivers in the chilly Belgian afternoon. 

The peace of the afternoon is disturbed, however, by Mari's hand slamming into Jana's face, and Britt _knows_ what this must be about. She feels a bit guilty, if she's being honest, but she is kinda happy that Jana is finally getting some sort of retribution for all that she's done.

(Emma would probably be furious at her if she wasn't reeling from a punch of her own, delivered by one Parisian Camille.)

What Britt did not expect was for this to turn into an all out brawl between to friend groups, and though she was standing fairly close when the first punch was thrown, she backs away quickly so as not to get roped into the fight herself. Not least because she's already in three others. She also didn't intend for it to end up all over the internet which, judging by the number of people taking video on their phones, is exactly what is about to happen.

A few older guys jump in to separate everyone (Britt catches a glimpse of Magnus helping out in Norway) before anyone starts bleeding, which Britt is grateful for.

Mari calls Jana a slut though, and its not angry like many of the insults that are ringing across schoolyards right now, but hurt. On the verge of tears even, and Jana screwed up but Britt thinks she might have too. If Britt hadn't told, maybe Mari and Luka would have worked things out okay. She doubts it, ("I doubt it" Tyler echoes in her head) but maybe. And, of course, there's the fact that Jana isn't the only person Luka cheated on Mari with at that party.

Britt falls into step behind Mari as the fight ends, following her back inside, and tries not to think about anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SkamNL gives us the lovely Imaan. We don't have a canon last name for her yet, so I gave her the original Sana's. Picking a Sana was a bit difficult because we only have one full season of her, but skam NL has given us a good bit of characterization within season one, including that extra little moment of deadpan humor with the pizza and Liv early on. She hasn't shown up yet in season 2 but I'm sure we'll get to hang out with her eventually and anyways, this story isn't there yet.
> 
> Imaan is obviously a perfect fit with Kala. Both women are driven and highly intelligent, and Imaan is going into Kala'a field of medicine, though in a different way. They are loyal to their faiths, and figuring out how to balance faith and tradition with the modern world is an important part of their lives. Imaan can have a harsher edge than Kala, but both want to bring out the best in the people they love.


	8. Everyone knows what kind of girl you are (bitch.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Britt says what's on her mind, Magnus is just glad to know what's going on, and Emma has a hard week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo break times going down again! I did just start a new job which is obviously very time consuming, but I'm trying not to worry about that too much. Welcome and welcome back to all. As always, I have no ownership of any skam version, or of sense8, but I still hope that you enjoy the chapter! Also, The Birthday is the original Eva Mohn's birthday.

Eva doesn't even greet him when he comes out of Gio's house, just demands "Did you speak to him?" through her tears.

Her voice is desperate through her tears, amplified by Emma's grief.

"Yes, I just was."

"What did he say?"

The part of him that's jealous, the part of him that honestly still wishes he _was_ the one to tell Gio, wants to tell her exactly what he said. Before he can though, Mia takes over.

"Let's just say he wasn't pleased" she says, through his mouth.

Even that understatement sets Eva off again- "Why doesn't he let me fucking explain?"

and Marti just steps back, letting Mia talk to the sobbing redhead. He's not sure that all Gio needs is time, but Jorge doesn't seem to know himself what he's going to do in Spain, so Marti lets it sit.

"Who told him?" Eva demands, and at least Marti can be honest when he tells her he doesn't know.

"He had suspected something for a while now, though," Marti explains to her, taking his voice back.

She deserves to know that much, deserves to know that her mistrust of him wasn't entirely one sided. In the end, of course, his was justified and hers was (mostly) not, but it doesn't change the fact that there was something fundamentally messed up about the relationship where something like this could grow into what it did. Her phone pings with two texts, and he asks if they're from Gio even though he knows that they are.

"Don't look for me, I'll text you when I'm ready to talk," he and Eva read off the screen.

"You screwed up everything," says the next one.

("That's unfair," they all tell Jorge, he and Magnus and Tyler will tell Gio and Jonas and Marlon later. "You lied too.")

He folds Eva (and Emma) into his arms.

* * *

Britt watches from across the schoolyard as Jana's friends greet her. The one with the red lipstick, who took down Senne the other day, scoops her up in a hug while the other girl with the hat looks on.

("Zoe and Amber," Imann tells her, after a quick glance at the spreadsheet that is now stored on her phone.

Whatever. Like Britt cares.)

Hat girl, _Amber, fine,_ seems to be the one doing most of the talking, while Zoe does a lot of eye rolling. Probably trying to defend Jana. Britt decides that this is an excellent time to head to class and gestures to Sarah and the other girl they're standing with-one of the new additions, Britt honestly can't be bothered to remember everyone's names yet-that she's ready to go.

"Well done Jana,"

"Um, hello?" demands Zoe.

"Hello what?" Britt replies.

This is the second time Jana has done this. Her new "friends" deserve to know what kind of a person Jana is. That's what Britt tells herself as Zoe demands that she backs off. But she isn't going to do the work for her, Jana is a big girl. Her new crew should know what happened, and Jana should be the one to tell them, and Britt isn't going to apologize for making her face her actions. She means it, too, when she tells Zoe-and Amber-not to come crying to her, because they've obviously just watched her break Marie's heart and done nothing. Britt got fooled once and learned, it isn't her problem if these girls don't do the same. Amber may be hopelessly naive but Zoe obviously isn't, Britt would know that even without Mia in her head, and loyalty shouldn't mean blindness.

("You're right." Emma says, her voice very small.

"What?" Britt asks, completely thrown.

"I said you're right. They deserve to know. I told myself I lied because I didn't know how to tell them, but really, its because I'm scared they'll leave me. But if I'm going to be able to really call them my friends, I can't be deceiving them."

"No." Britt replies, "You can't be. They deserve better than that, and so do I. So does...Ingrid."

"I'm going to talk to her too, I think. She deserves another apology."

"Apologies only do so much you know."

"I know.")

* * *

Britt is stuck in her own head over her conversation with Jana, Jorge is reeling from his Eva's betrayal, and Emma is preparing to deal with her mom, so Magnus decides that this is a great time to figure out why, exactly, he knows all of that. Its surprisingly easy, like turning a page in a book, but the book is Mia's brain. Like she said was possible, because she knows it, they all do.

They all have the same birthday, June 2nd, and they were born at the same instant in time. That's pretty cool if he's being honest. Mia says that when they take over each other's bodies, that's called sharing, and the eight of them can only do that with each other. So visiting is when they're in the same place, but not sharing a body,

("Right?"

"Right." Mia confirms)

and any sensates can do that as long as they've made eye contact in, (as Tyler puts it,) meatspace.

That's why they didn't want Mia making eye contact with anyone until she got to the front desk. The person who had greeted her had been the one to explain, helpfully demonstrating. So now Mia was linked to that woman, but none of the rest of them were.

Magnus picks out a word that has a question mark in Mia's brain: parent.

("Every cluster has a person who activated their phsycillium bond." he reads.

"A cluster usually has a similar bond with their parent as they do with each other, where they can share." She explains. "But I haven't seen anyone besides the seven of you, and I don't think anyone else has either."

"I haven't." Magnus confirms, then looks at more of the, hmmm, more of the mind-page for lack of better phrasing.

"So she's probably on blockers," he deduces.

"Yes. Apparently it's very unusual for a parent not to contact their cluster right away-"

-"of course we get a weirdo"- Tyler interjects,

"Unusual but not unheard of" Mia finishes, talking over him. "So I talked to a lady named Daya at the BPO lab who makes the blockers, and she said that she could talk to her sister, who is a sensate, and would be able to ask around and see who was known to be expecting a cluster and ordered blockers."

"Using the archipelago?"

"Using the archipelago."

"Wait, I'm lost, what's the archipelago?" Tyler chimes in again.

"It's _right in front of you_ ," Mia sighs, exasperated, but nonetheless, talks it out.

"When a sensate wants to know something, they visit another sensate and ask. That person visits and asks another person, and so on and so on, until someone has an answer that they send back. Now that I'm connected to the lady from BPO, we can use the system."

"Cool." Tyler comments, and Magnus has to agree.

He decides that that's enough information for them moment though, so he heads back to his own room.)

When he gets back, there's a text from Eva asking him when he thinks Jonas will be ready to talk to her. He hesitates, then sends a reply.

"A few more days maybe? I don't know. :( "

* * *

 "Dinner? What a nice surprise!" Emma's mom greets her, and she keeps the smile firmly in place as her mom decides that they'll eat now.

It doesn't seem like the school called her about the fight, like Eva's did, so that's a definite plus side. Apparently, French schools trust students to sort out their messes without parental guidance more that Norwegian schools do. She brings the serving dishes to the already set table.

"How was work?"

"I didn't think you were interested"

"Sorry sweetie, but usually...yeah, yeah, work is fine," her mother settles on.

Emma is grateful, she figures the longer she can keep her mom talking about literally anything that isn't her, the more of a chance she has of getting through this. She's going to need to tell her mom parts of what has been going on, of course, if she wants to be able to carry through with her half-formed plans, but those parts should be kept as small as possible.

"Well, teams are being modified, but that's normal this time of year," she continues, while Emma serves the salad.

"Here,"

"Thank you."

"So I was wondering," Emma starts, figuring its better to start this up as a hypothetical, "did you spend all of high school at one school?"

"No, I did my last year somewhere else," comes the reply, and Emma's spirits lift slightly.

"I didn't transfer mid year," -drat- "but I wasn't where I wanted to be after the first years, so I transferred somewhere else for the final one," she continues to explain as they start in on the meal.

"Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Emma says.

No point in making this bigger than it needs to be until she has all of the details figured out. Unfortunately, her mom can't let that sit. Of course, the one time Emma actually wants her to be oblivious, she isn't.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Sweetie, if you're asking me about this, something is obviously off. Are things ok at school? You know you can tell me anything."

"I know Mom, but don't worry, I'm fine."

"Do you want to watch something after dinner?"

Emma's resolve is barely holding as is, so she pulls out the homework excuse and passes the bread when her mother requests it.

* * *

 

 Hanna is utterly heartbroken, and Mia honestly doesn't know what to do. She can't help but think, can't help but know, really, that it couldn't have been that good of a relationship if Jonas isn't even letting Hanna explain herself. If he isn't even noticing how completely devastated she is, if he can just ignore all of her texts and calls like she doesn't even matter.

"He'll text you. Believe me." she says anyways.

(Jorge's resolve is weakening, surely Jonas' must be also.)

"What if he doesn't? What if it's over?" Hanna asks.

Her voice is broken, her head is on MIa's shoulder, and her eyes are glazed slightly as they stare off into the distance. As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.

She swears Hanna to secrecy, and cranks up the cheesy tunes,

(ignoring Tyler's snickering and Britt's incredulous look,)

and starts singing along. Sure enough, it gets Hanna to crack a smile, and then the two of them are both singing along.

(Mia's also channeling the equally ridiculous music that Manon is showing Emma, and Emma in turn perks up a little extra at the double dose of silliness.)

But then, Hanna's face goes a bit flat. Mia is a tad worried that its Jonas, making a disaproving face over her capitalist music choices or something, but this is worse. Much worse.

"Cool song," says none other than Alexander Hardenberg. He's here, and stupid Charles Munier is in France, and really, why can't these boys take a hint? She shuts him down, hard, both when he asks to sing with them and then tries to get her on a date.

(Britt is definitely helping her out; she wouldn't have thought of the harassment comment on her own and its a good line. Imann is cheering her on, and Emma and the guys are watching in admiration.)

Its a good feeling, sticking up to a guy like that - a guy like _him-_ and the support from her cluster makes it better. Plus, she has Hanna backing her up right here in Berlin, and the scene seems to have helped cheer her up anyways. In short order, they are singing about amazing lives for each other once again.

* * *

  Engel is like...crazy quiet, which is the least Engel thing ever.

(She checks with Mia to see if it could be related to the food-sorting thing, but Mia says that although withdrawing from friends can be a symptom, this seems different. Then Daphne starts speaking to Emma, and Imann knows what's going to happen just a split second before it does.)

Imann lets herself admire the selfie she and live just took-seriously, its so cute-just as Engel snatches Janna's phone out of her hand.

"Isa," she declares, after what seems like the longest lead up ever, "I know why Olivia hates you and why no one wants to be friends with you."

Engel begins launching into the story of Kes and Olivia and Isa, starting from the beginning, and Imann is a mess. She keeps her face as blank as she can but she's-herself, disgusted at Engel putting Isa on the spot like that without even an offer for her to tell them first,

(-Emma, living the pain triple

-Mia, sympathetic and hearing it thrice,

-Britt, sucker punched into reliving it, again and again and again

-Marti, Tyler, and Magnus, remembering their own inaction,

-Jorge. Guilty.)

"We don't all think that, why are you speaking on our behalf?" She demands, "Doesn't friendship mean anything to you?"

Imann's hoping the others will back her up. Liv will, she knows thanks to Mia, but the others...

Engel doubles down on Isa, and then pulls the whole "your culture" thing and brings up the drink throwing, and Imann is just...done. She's spent all this time making excuses for the blonde, defending her and eyerolling-off the casual Islamopohobia and squashing down her own frustrations in hopes of the other girl's acceptance but this is the last straw. If Engel can't be friends with her after this, then fine. Not worth it.

She doesn't tell the full story of the party, but she's proud of what she says about loyalty. About supporting your friends, and standing up for them, and believing in them, and then she leaves, and as she does she hears Liv telling Engel the truth of the party. Her heart is still racing, but at least that's one friend she hasn't lost.

When she sees Janna in class later, the redhead updates her on what happened after she left. Engel, apparently, had been the next one to leave after no one took her side, but "don't worry." Janna tells her, as the teacher starts checking the roll, "you've still got us, and we've still got you, and we'll figure it out."

 

* * *

Every part of Jorge is in pain. His limbs are sore from all of the time he's been spending playing football and running to distract himself, his head aches from insomnia, and his eyes hurt from crying, not that he'll admit to it. Until se went viral, he was almost able to pretend it hadn't happened to them. But it did. So now he's meeting her because...because he wants to hear her say it himself. If they break up and it's the last conversation they have, he wants to at least know it. Mostly, he just want to know why (and secondhand from Emma isn't the same).

Climbing the steps takes forever.

He's out of patience for both small talk, and silence, but she can't seem to make the words come out. She's the one who lied, and she's the one who betrayed him, and she's the one who has missed opportunity after opportunity to tell him before he found out like this.

Maybe a question will work better?

"Do you have something going on with Christian?"

"No," she says, shaking her head, "I mean, I don't even like him."

Okay. Now they're getting...somewhere. Not far, but at least they're moving.

"Then what happened?"

"I called you," she says, and dammit, he's sorry, but sometimes he can't get to his phone, but she's barreling on, finally, "and you weren't picking up and I thought you were with Ines..."

"And that's why you made out with someone else?" he fills in, already knowing the answer.

"I know I did something wrong Jorge, but you also lied to me,"

And now he's really frustrated, in part because she isn't wrong but mostly because all he was trying to do was help her and she couldn't just trust him enough to let that happen. Maybe Ines fed her suspicions the same was Ingrid fed Emma's, he doesn't know. But Eva was mad when he believed rumors without talking to her, so it's more than a little hypocritical of her to believe Ines without talking to him.

"All of this is my fault." She says, eventually, and now he's the one letting it all out.

"I don't understand Eva, why would you cheat on me just because you thought I was cheating on you? Why would you hook up with someone you don't even like at all? I don't-" and he realizes the truth of it as he says it,-"I don't even know who you are anymore. All of that time you were worried about me, and you were the one who cheated. "

He's got nothing left, but she grabs him sleeve-"Jorge, don't go!"

She's making more promises, but they were empty the last time and he can't help but worry that they'll be empty again.

("They're not!" Emma wails, to him and to Yann, but he ignores her because for this moment, Eva is the only person who matters)

"I love you," she tells him, "and you love me,"

and he leaves her crying on the step because she's right-again-but this time, he's pretty sure it isn't enough.

* * *

 

Tyler figures that Shay texts him pretty much the second she's off the phone with Megan.

"And she  really doesn't deserve any of this. Wow, I'm so glad I didn't tell him. Like. Fuck. Imagine all of this was my fault. I'm ready to throw hands at whoever decided it was a good idea."

He lets her go on about it, giving appropriate little hums when she needs encouragement but mostly just letting her get all of her frustration out. Its what best friends do. Besides Shay, of course, he also knows what's going on from Emma-and-Yann in Paris and Jorge-and-Eva in Madrid. Its one of the times when he feels vaguely guilty about having this, this, ability or whatever the proper term is. These are deeply personal conversations, and if Tyler thought it was uncomfortable being on the couch between Meg and Marlon, it certainly isn't _more_ comfortable being in the heads of their doppelgangers while they have conversations about their future. Besides that even, it feels like spying, like he knows things he shouldn't.

("I think..." Magnus says slowly, "That it isn't about knowing things we shouldn't. I think it's about knowing what we need to know to help our friends. I mean, there must be millions of people born on June 2nd. But of al of those millions of people, we're the ones who are linked."

"Fate puts us where we need to be; it introduces us to the people we need to meet." Imann chimes in. "If we weren't linked, maybe Marti would have been the one to tell Gio, and then Eva would have had to deal with that betrayal too."

Britt hums in consideration.

"Fate doesn't seem to care about me though." She says, "I'm the one who got hurt to begin with. If this had all happened a few months ago, maybe I could have confronted Jana and Jens earlier, instead of having to catch them in the act."

"You and Jens were already on the rocks," Imann points out, "And if you were in their heads, you would have had to watch it build up, maybe even second guessed yourself. Dragging it out might have hurt more."

"It hurt either way." Britt reiterates, and Tyler can't help but agree.

"If this had happened earlier, she might have at least gotten a choice," he points out, and she gives him a grateful look.

"I am sorry Britt," Magnus says. "You didn't deserve that. Jens and Jana, and Robbe, owed you the truth, just like we all owed it to Ingrid. Just like Tyler and them owed it to Abigail, and Emma hers owed it to her Ingrid, and Jorge and his owed it to Ines. We all fucked up. But there's nothing we can do about that now besides apologize more, and that only goes so far. We all need to learn how to go on from here.")

It's good advice, and Tyler passes it on to Shay when she concludes her phone rant with "I don't know what to do now."

"Now," Tyler tells her, "we figure out how to move forward."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Skam Espana's Jorge is the only Jonas I like, original included. I debated whether to have version of him at all, because I wasn't sure if I wanted him in the headspace while the girls were figuring things out. I kinda wanted it to be just them. However, I needed him to make the female/male numbers work because I'm using everyone in the same year even if I am ditching canon birthdays.  
> Jorge is my Will, and I should note here that I am NOT a Joneva shipper. I feel like that relationship was unhealthy in all versions, even in this one. However, Jorge is still my Will because he is a connection point for the cluster. In this cluster, everyone besides Mia and Imaan has a direct connection with Jorge to start out. Like Magnus/Nomi, Jorge/Will is a planner, and a person that the rest of the cluster relies on for leadership when things go topsy-turvy. Like Will, Jorge cares deeply about those connected with him, offering support and a listening ear. Like Will, when Jorge screws up, he screws up big time (see: Will getting hooked on heroin, Jorge's whole cheating mess, in addition to the drugs in other versions)


	9. Let you say...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marti is a good friend, Mia is proud, Emma and Britt have a much-needed conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! I'm about back to my original update pace, so that's a plus, though I think work will be pretty busy this weekend so no promises. I swear these chapters are getting harder to write though...As I said, we're going with the original skam pace, with Isak-plot coming from Skam Espana (for this season/story at least,) so if you're feeling at all lost, those are the versions you're looking for. All sense8 info comes from the only version of that that there is! I own, of course, nothing.

Tyler is, of course, hanging out in the courtyard when the smoothie comes down over Megan's head, the worse "slut," clearly audible from the balcony ahead. He has very little time to process this, however, because he finds himself next to Emma almost immediately after.

(The message is ugly, the heart on the back scrawled in period blood, of all things, is more so. She drops it in shock and disgust, but then freezes, seeming lost in the empty hallway.

"It isn't me, I swear it isn't me." says Britt, and they believe her but this still _hurts._

Emma stands still long enough that someone pushes by her, so he slides into her skin for a second to get her moving. She takes back over, and rushes them to a bathroom stall, where she promptly puts her head in her hands. Outside of their hiding place, they can hear other girls talking, saying that her friends are the same and they're going to beat Emma up, and on and on. She's frozen in place and all Tyler can do is hug her to his side in the cramped toilet stall.

"You fucked up." He says to her. "You fucked up pretty badly, and people suck so they're not going to want to let it go. But they will, eventually, maybe if you talk to them a bit it will help. But this is all just stupid high school drama, and before you know it, you'll be old news. Then things can go back to normal."

It's as close to a pep talk as he can manage, but her breathing steadies out a bit, so he supposes it was better than nothing

Emma perks up more though, when one of the voices mentions not actually caring. Apparently, some girl named Anais is the driving factor in all of this. They leave the stall and stare at each other through the bathroom mirror.

"So apparently, things are brighter than expected. All you have to do is deal with this Anais bitch, and you'll be fine." He tells her.

"All I have to do is talk to Anais and I'll be fine." she repeats, actually seeming to believe it. "Will you stay with me?"

"Sure. But what...is that?"

Emma turns around as another stall door, from behind which the retching noises came, opens. It's Daphne.

"Oh no," says Mia, pale.

"Are you okay?" Emma asks Daphne, gathering a bit of paper towel to help her.

"Did you hear? Do you think they were talking about me?" she continues.

"I don't know, did it remind you of yourself?" Daphne replies

-She's deflecting. This is really bad." Mia inserts-

"Anyway its none of my business. I'm no longer part of the crew,")

The shock of that is enough to jolt Tyler back into his own body. He glances around, making sure no one is looking at him funny for breathing like he just ran a mile, and goes back to Paris.

("I don't want to be part of the most hated group of girls in school, especially when even the girls in the crew hate me." Daphne explains.

Emma seems to surprised to say anything, so Tyler jumps in to fill the void.

"No one hates you Daphne,"

"What about Imane?"

Tyler is half expecting Imann to jump in to defend her doppelganger right about now, but then he remembers that she's pretty annoyed at Engel right now, and therefore probably isn't up to comforting anyone else's version. Instead, there are a couple beats of silence before Daphne announces that she's going to be party planning with Ingrid again.

"I mean, Amber's back with us. But I honestly think she'd be happier with you guys." Britt says.

"Daphne!" Emma calls out.

She doesn't seem to know what to say from there though, so Tyler takes over again.

"I'm not the kind of girl who steals other girls' boyfriends."

"What kind of girl are you then?" Daphne asks, and its the same question that Jorge asked, its the same question they've all been asking themselves for the past two months or so, and none of them seem to have a way of answering it.

"I'm going to call Manon," Emma says, and Tyler takes his cue to go back to Austin)

* * *

 Marti is sitting cross-legged on Emma's bed, letting her rest her head on his shoulder while she watches cheerful introduction videos for different high schools. When Eva video calls him, Marti presses a kiss into Emma's hair, which she acknowledges with a half of a smile, then goes back to his room in time to pick up the call after the third ring.Eva asks him about some end-of-school party, which, yeah, of course he got invited to. Didn't everyone?

Apparently not.

"My friends didn't get it either," she says, sounding small.

He hates that she blames herself for this.

"I mean, do you know who's organizing the party?" he asks her.

"No?"

"Maria Sorgato. Alice's best friend."

"Come anyways." he tells her.

Really, what does it matter? All of those girls will be leaving the school soon, that's the whole point of this party. Eva's mistakes do not mean that she should be banned from ever having fun again, and they certainly don't mean that her friends deserved to be shunned by a bunch of girls who they have never met.

"It isn't really about the party," Eva tells him, "But all this petty stuff is why I'm considering switching schools."

"Seriously?" He asks her.

Its been hard enough not having her around while she and Gio have been on the outs, he can only imagine what it would be like if she went to a totally different school. Actually, scratch that. He doesn't _want_ to imagine what it would be like if she went to a totally different school.

"Yes!" she (and Emma) exclaim, "I'm so sick of everything and everyone here!"

"What are you sick about?" he asks them.

"Everything."

(Emma is talking to Lucas and also to him.)

Her voice breaks as she describes all the things that have happened over the week. The nasty writing, the lack of party invites. The blood, and the gossip, the fight with Gio.

"Isn't that enough?" she asks, a little desperate.

"Okay." he says, buying time to think.

(Mia pops into his head, sits beside Emma on her bed, and speaks.)

"You didn't used to be someone who ran away."

"And what if I became that person? Maybe I did. Maybe I became a bitch, and a slut, and a liar, and maybe I became a person who runs away. Is there anything else you'd like to tell me about who I am?" she demands, and even Mia falls silent because you can't answer a question like that for another person when you can't even answer it for yourself.

"If you all hate me, why do you even keep hanging out with me?" is Eva's next question.

"I'm sorry." he tell her.

"No, I'm sorry," he replies, and then its Britt in his head.

("Trust me." she says to them, then turns to Eva)

"Maybe you should do it. You're right, it doesn't make sense to be stuck here for another two years if you're going to be stuck with your ex and a bunch of people who hate you." She tells Eva.

("What are you doing?" Marti demands.

"Trust me." Britt says again, and sure enough, Eva's mouth has finally started to turn up at the corners.)

"I'm not five," she tells him, "reverse psychology won't work on me,"

"I don't know..." he comes back, teasing. "won't it?"

"Kick their ass!" He tells her.

("Thank you." he tells Britt.)

* * *

 The next day finds Magnus in the schoolyard once more. He's not quite sure how he found himself using his hands as target practice for this girls fists, but he's not that mad about it, really. The rest of the guys haven't arrived yet, and she's cute, with dark brown hair and a floppy hat. She's bouncing up and down on her heels playing the boxer, and he occasionally tries to give her some advice on stance, but mostly just lets her have her fun.

Eva, in her deep red coat, catches his eye over the brunette's shoulder. She's standing in the middle of the courtyard, running her hands along a sealed bag with what he assumes is the period blood letter inside of it. She's gathering her courage, he can assume with a fair amount of accuracy, taking deep breaths while gazing at a group of third year girls. The Rad Girls, if gossip is to be believed, the ones who can make or break you. Magnus doesn't really believe it, to be honest, but this is clearly something Eva needs to do.

She walks towards the table, and Mangus says his goodbyes to the brunette to go over and join his friends. Who, conveniently, are standing much closer to the Rad Girls. He's not snooping, he reason, or no more that he would be anyways by default. He's just...being a good friend. Besides, he helped to break up the last fight, he ought to be nearby if another one breaks out. That doesn't seem like it will be too much of a problem though, the girls don't even seem to notice Eva for a while.

"What is it?" One of the girls finally says.

"Are you Maria? The Bus Boss from Rad?"

Eva introduces herself, and again, there is mostly silence. Magnus relaxes a fraction of the way.

(Things seem to be going about the same in France as well.)

He misses some of the conversation after than; Jonas is ranting about his broken skateboard. Eva looks more confused now than worried, and Magnus is taking that as an upgrade. Jonas finishes his complaints with a vague plan to visit the skate shop tomorrow after school, allowing Magnus to turn his attention back to the conversation with the Rad Girls. (and the...whatever the French girls are calling themselves.)

"Listen Eva," Maria is saying, "I'm sure that in your head, this hookup is the most important and dramatic thing ever in history, but for us who have been here a for while, its just a little footnote. So I suggest you talk to the ones involved, okay?"

("That's what I said!" Tyler exclaims.)

"Okay."

Maria sighs, and seems to take pity on Eva.

"And relax, ok? You're supposed to fuck up a lot, you're a first year. You're supposed to hook up a lot. But don't sleep around. That's different, ok? When we were in our first year, we had a chlamydia epidemic."

The Rad Girls seem to forget about Eva, then, back to their gossip. She wanders off, headed to the trash can and then to class.

* * *

"You're amazing" Mia tells Hanna when she joins her friend in the cafeteria later.

The two of them are standing on line for food, and Hanna has just updated her on the conversation with the senior girls. Mia also knows from Emma that Hanna is downplaying how scared she was, how absolutely terrified of some awful rejection she has been. But, whether thanks to Matteo's help, or her own inner strength, or some combination of the two, she had done it. Mia is proud, and she tells Hanna so.

"Yes," Hanna sighs, "But now I actually have to do what they said, and talk to the people involved. And I just...I haven't really talked to Leonie since Jonas and I started. The one time I talked to Julie, it was because she was giving me advice after I helped her boyfriend cheat on her."

"By accident," Mia reminds her.

"Yes. By accident. But she still got hurt, and I'm still the one who did it."

"You could put out a white flag." Mia suggests, "Invite her to that girls night party that Amira is throwing at the karaoke bar. Offer to pay for the first round or something, see where it goes.

Hanna giggles.

"Okay, that could work."

Then she sighs.

"If the senior girls didn't send the threat though, then that means that either Leonie or Julie who sent it. And whichever it was probably isn't ready to just forgive me."

"Do we have to sing again?" Mia asks her.

"Please no." Hanna answers with an eyeroll. "You're welcome to sing solo though, I have to get to class. Later!"

"Later!"

Hanna walks off and Mia is left with her own thoughts for a few minutes. Without really thinking about it, she finds herself drifting into Tyler's headspace.

("They'll be alright." he says.

"I know...I still can't help but be worried though."

"Look, I know you love Hanna, but trust me here. I've known Meg longer than you've known her. When she sets her mind to something, that girl will blow your mind. She's made it through everything so far, hasn't she? And it doesn't really matter if she's scared or worried or nervous, because she always pushes through anyways. It's one of the best things about her. So take a chill pill. Relax. Worry about your own classwork for a minute. When Hanna comes back, support her, because everyone needs support, but mostly just believe in her. She's gonna be great."

Mia nods, and they're both silent for a moment.

"Thanks." Emma says.)

* * *

 Imann really should go to kickboxing, but it isn't like she's in bad shape. Isa, on the other hand, certainly isn't at her peak, so she joins the others, minus Engel, for milkshakes. She's a bit late, but the others are just messing around, blowing bubbles when she grabs her vanilla shake and slides into the booth next to Isa and across from Janna.

"What happened to kickboxing?" Janna asks.

"Eh, I was needed more here," she replies, nudging Isa with her shoulder.

The curly haired girl bumps her back, Janna whoops loudly, and Liv grins. Then, they return to their milkshake-bubble-blowing until Janna manages to bubble hers over the rim of her glass. They all break to giggle, and then Janna starts the conversation back up.

"So is it over now between Anna and Gijs?" she asks.

Beside her, Imann can feel Isa (Emma) go rigid.

"I don't know." Imann replies.

"Apparently he went all the way to her house with a gigantic bouquet of all her favorite flowers, and huge ass balloons, and all that romantic comedy shit," Janna continues, face lit up with the joy of a good story. "He almost brought a band with him  too, he really went all out."

"I can't believe boys still think that works" Liv retorts.

"I don't know," Janna shrugs. "I might be into it. If someone made an effort to get me flowers, and balloons.."

"But they didn't bother to get chocolate?" Imann interjects.

They all laugh.

"Maybe he just really loves her a lot though?" Janna offers.

They all last about 5 seconds before they break. Well, all but Isa. She drops her straw into the milkshake, gazing down at the table while rubbing at her forehead. Would it be better for her if Gijs and Anna stayed together? Or worse?

"Sorry Ies," Liv comments, noticing her distress.

Isa shrugs and makes her excuses. The shop's bell chimes cheerfully on her way out. Imann, Janna, and Liv are left to finish their milkshakes, and although the sweet treat is still quite good and they manage to find plenty to talk and joke about, it isn't quite the same.

* * *

Imane tells her that Ingrid hooked up with Alex, and Emma's mind completely craps out. It's one thing to, like, kind of assume because of Britt, and another thing entirely to know for certain, thanks, Imane's eyewitness testimony.

("Did you really have to tell though?" She asks Britt.

"I was angry." Britt replies.

It isn't an apology, but it isn't a defense either. It's a statement of fact, take it or leave it.

"We should talk to each other for real. I'll come to you." Emma says, and then seals off her mind so Britt can't argue.

Emma is pretty sure that she wouldn't anyways.)

Emma goes straight for the door where she knows Ingrid will be coming out after class-she knows because over the summer, they had spent the afternoon after getting their schedules excitedly planning where they would be able to meet up-grabs to other girl, and convinces her to talk by mentioning Camille. Does she feel bad? Yeah, a bit. But mostly, she's sick of being scared, sick of being a coward, sick of hiding behind her friends. Sick of not knowing who she is. So when Ingrid comes along with her to the bathroom, it feels like something is settling back into place. Lucas said it: she's not a runner. Its time she stopped acting like one.

"I know you don't want to talk to me," she begins, "but no matter what happens, we're gonna have to spend the next two years in the same school. We need to find a way to get along. And you can ignore me all you want, but stop gossiping about me. Stop sending me threatening letters."

("I didn't send the letters!" Britt protests)

-Ingrid is about to protest-

but that's kind of besides the point because Emma isn't finished. She is a bit lost though, she knows what she wants to say, but she doesn't know how.

(Britt herself steps in, says, "The truth," and continues)

"When I got here in 7th grade, no one paid attention to me, no one cared about me. I was lost, and you were the one to find me."

Ingrid's face softens slightly, so Britt plunges on, still in Emma's voice.

"I was so proud to be your friend. I didn't know why the most popular girl in school decided to pick me to join her crew."

(They're crying together now, her and Emma and Ingrid,)

"You're the best friend I've ever had," Britt says, marveling at the truth of it even as she says it.

"You're probably the best friend I'll ever have. And I know I ruined it. I know that we will never have what we did. And I'm gonna live with that forever, but I can't blame myself forever. I can't spend the rest of my life panicking over one mistake."

(Britt hesitates then, and then pulls out the truth of her own pain. The stuff she's been trying to ignore. The stuff she needs to hear.)

"You and Yann (She and Jens,) had been on the rocks for months. We would all hang out together, all of the time. I got lost (Jana got lost) in all of that and I fell in love with him (Jana fell in love with him,)"

(Britt chokes, and Emma steps back into her skin.)

"I know that it's pathetic. I know that I really shouldn't have. I shouldn't have done that to my best friend.  I know how much I hurt you. I know that you deserved so much more from me. If I could go back and change time and erase all of it I would, without even thinking about it. But I can't. I can't do that, no one can. So all I can say is I'm sorry. One more time, I will tell you that I am so sorry for what I did to you, that I betrayed you and I lied to you. It doesn't change anything. You're still hurt, and I'm still guilty. but I hope that now, at least, we can try to get past that. I'm not asking you to be my friend again, though I think maybe we could get there one day. I hope we can. For now, all I want is for you to stop making me miserable. Because I can't take it any more."

Ingrid nods. Then speaks.

"Okay. Okay, I'll stop messing with you. And you're right, I think that maybe we can one day be friendly again. Just not right now. I didn't send you that letter though. And I barely knew Camille when I hooked up with Alex."

At that moment, Camille enters the bathroom with her posse, "Are you kidding me?!?" spilling from her lips. The older girl lunges at Ingrid and Magnus (apparently he is going to break up another fight this week,) jumps into Emma's body to push Camille to the side.

("You need help?" Mia and Britt both ask her, but no, Emma's got this, and Magnus leaves to, so its just her in her skin. She can feel them all behind her though. Magnus' steadiness, Britt and Mia's fire, Tyler's loyalty, Imann's grit, Marti's support, and Jorge, quiet as he has been since the letter appeared, but present.)

"What is your problem?" Emma demands of Camille, "You can't just go after everyone like that! It isn't possible! You're dating the biggest asshole in the school, he hits on everything that moves! And you, instead of dumping him, you go after other girls and send letters written with blood?!?" -it's a guess but she can tell from Camille's face that she was right- "Hey. The problem is him. He's the one who has to go. You can't pick on others like that."

Camille's face breaks, and Emma feels bad almost immediately, even though she _wasn't wrong dammit._

"I'm sorry," Emma says, "I didn't mean to-"

"No, you're right, and I know it." Camille cuts her off.

"You deserve better than this though, really," Emma tells the other girl hoping it sinks in.

"I love him."

Emma sighs. She has no room to talk about loving the wrong person.

"At least he told you the truth..."

Camille looks confused though.

"What do you mean?"

"At least he told you that he cheated."

"No, he really didn't"

"Wasn't it him who told you that we...that Alex and I...that we kissed?"

"No. I saw the text from you asking him not to say anything."

When Emma leaves the bathroom, lost in her own head, Ingrid is still there, and pulls her in for a quick hug.

* * *

 

When Jana approaches Britt at her locker, she rolls her eyes because she knew this was coming, but seriously, couldn't the universe have given her more than five minutes in between?

("We've go you." says Magnus, calm as ever,")

Britt follows Jana to the locker room, and they wait for the other girl there to leave. Then, she must admit, she pretty much tunes out for the length of Jana's speech. She just heard this, just said most of it really. Jana's version is slightly different, she hesitates more often. Britt supposes that that's fair, its easier to spill someone else's guts than your own. She also has to remind herself that Jana really does believe that she sent the threat letter; she doesn't have, well, Britt, in her head to tell her otherwise.

Shit. Despite only half listening, she's crying again, and Jana is crying. There's something different about hearing that Jana is willing to say all of it anyways, not even knowing, as Emma did, that its all gonna work out, at least a bit. At least a step. At least for now.

(Emma is crying again too, and they giggle-sniffle at each other.)

Jana is even more honest with her than she was with herself, reminding Britt that she continuously said she was going to break up with Jens. And she was, too, for probably the same reasons that Jana and Jens are on the rocks now. Forget lack of relationship trust, he didn't even trust her to have her own likes and dislikes. His friends were always invited, but her own friends -outside of Jana and sometimes Alicia,- had to be approved. And in retrospect, it makes sense why he was okay with Jana. He wanted a yes-girl, not a girlfriend.

"I really don't expect you to just like me again, or for us to become friends again." Jana says, "but please. No more threat letters. I really can't handle that."

"Okay." Britt says, "No more bullshit," and she pulls Jana into a hug.

The other girl's arms hang limply at her sides for a moment and then the come around Britt, back pack and all.

When they break apart a moment later, Britt knows its her turn to talk.

"Your right. We can't be friends again, at least not yet. But I think maybe today was a good first step back. And I don't know anything about a threat letter."

"What?"

They turn to the mirrors, fixing pulled hair and red eyes.

"Check?" Jana asks

"Check." Britt says.

"Check." Jana confirms, as they leave the bathroom.

Britt can just make out the sound of a stall door squeaking open behind them, and thanks her lucky stars that Marie seems to feel one first fight over a guy is plenty.

* * *

 

Imann and Mia blame him, and Jorge can't say that they're wrong. He cheated on his girlfriend. With her best friend. That's, well, pretty much the first rule of any relationship, ever: don't cheat, especially with the best friend. But he broke it. He  broke it in spectacular fashion, and then, he is realizing, he started treating Eva the same was he treated Ines. Always putting his needs first, never making the effort to make her friends part of his life. Assuming she agreed with him on everything.

Emma (and Jana,) and Britt (and Ingrid,) seem to be working their way to a truce, if nothing else, so he can only assume that Eva and Ingrid are too. he's happy for them; they should. They would still be friends if it weren't for him, and though he wonders if he should be helping, Mia's voice in his ear tells him that he was the one to break them. His appearance in whatever corner of the school they're currently figuring it out in would only underline the fracture, not help to heal it.

So Jorge sits on a park bench, and he scrolls through his conversations with Ines, and he scrolls trough his conversations. Like before, like always, he can't pin down a moment when it started to go downhill, only that it did.

("Real life is rarely simple enough to turn on single moments," Imann says with a deep sigh.

He tilts his head in acknowledgement, but keeps scrolling anyways.)

He owes Ines a thousand apologies, and he owes them to Eva too. He owes himself the truth. What Eva did to him was no worse than what he did to Ines, and she never would have mistrusted him in the first place if he hadn't done it. There's more than enough blame to go around here, but Jorge is finally realizing that a decent chunk of it falls on him.

("Do you need to talk about it?" Magnus asks.

"...No. I just need to think about it.)

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final character blurb! wtFock gives us Britt Ingelbrecht. I was debating whether to use Vilde or girl Chris for the eighth member, when I watched this most recent version's confrontation scene. I realized that having an Ingrid version in the cluster would make that scene a whole lot different, and was intrigued as to what that would look like. Plus, this saves us from having one odd girl out in the girl squad with no cluster member. It also, to me, gives the chance to underline how being a sensate has the power to bring a lot of very different people together, regardless of their history.  
> Britt and Wolfgang both start out as the most isolated members of their clusters, the ones who are the most different from the others. Wolfgang, of course, is dealing with his violent past, (and present,) while Britt is trying to recover from a betrayal by two of the people she trusted the most. Both of them need to figure out how to live with the past if they're going to have any hope of moving on to a brighter future. Like Sun/Mia, Wolfgang/Britt has no problem with confronting people, demanding that they face the consequences of their actions.


	10. Caring is like...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jorge and Imann are both figuring out how to take baby steps, everyone gets a moment of stress relief, and Mia is feeling the pressure but Magnus and Emma are there to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Schneikies! This is the 2nd to last chapter. How did that happen? When did that happen? What's going on here? What's going on is me not owning, anything, which hasn't changed (unfortunately) since chapter 1. Another note: here we break from Skam Espana, because I think that that was Viri thing was unnecessary. Let's just say some random jerk took the pic. And the lack of Isak being the one to tell Iben is obviously going to make that scene look a lot different, so heads up (and I messed with timelines a little to make it work). Onwards!

Jorge is sweating too much to really be thinking about anything besides why won't Dilan escape his defender, and can Hugo PLEASE pass more, and come on, that was such a good shot, why does the other team's goalkeep have to be so good? He's playing because Lucas asked him to come; the other boy needs an escape from all the crap currently happening at home, and he's playing to Not Think About Eva, so he really doesn't expect it when he follows the escaped ball and finds the girl in question curled up in the hollow of the tree's roots. She doesn't say anything when she hands him the ball back.

Jorge thinks it over. The easy option here would be to say thanks and go back to the game. Doing that though, would definitely mark him as the selfish asshole he's been trying to, y'know, stop being lately.

"How are you?" He asks instead.

("Stupid question," says Britt, a bit derisively.

She isn't wrong, but its all he's got.)

Eva fidgets, and he kneels down beside her.

"I know its fucked up. But you have to ignore the meme and all that," he tells her, thinking of Tyler's pep talk and what Magnus overheard the Rad Girls saying, but using his own words.

She nods, and thanks him, and he feels even worse. Yeah, they might be on the outs, but he still cares about her. How could she think he would just let her get pushed around like that. He wouldn't, he never will, and he tells her as much.

"Still, you didn't have to," she tells him.

"I know," he responds, "but with you, its comes naturally."

There's a fragile moment of silence, and neither of them seems to know where to look.

("Say something. Anything. Jesus, you two are impossible around the globe apparently," Tyler observes, oh-so-helpfully.)

Before he can though, Eva speaks up.

"Maybe...we should meet up to talk? Someday soon?" she offers, tentative.

"Someday soon," he agrees. "I don't know about you, but I'm a mess right now."

"I am too," Eva replies, "But I think that's why its important."

The moment is broken by Hugo and Dilan coming over to ask about the ball, but when he tells her it was good to see her as he goes back to the game, he means it. And he really does hope that they have that conversation soon.

(Emma, fresh from seeing Yann, agrees.

"Maybe we can practice together?" she offers.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think that would help. Thanks."

"Thank _you.")_

* * *

Imann pretty much bs'd her way through the "analyze the song lyrics" assignment so she doesn't have a lot to contribute to the conversation. Instead, she's absentmindedly listening to the other's rap along with Isa's chosen tune, and talking to Mia with the other half of her brain.

("So, have we learned anything new about our parent?" she asks.

"Well, a sensate parent has to be older than their cluster, so we know that they're at least 16. Probably older though, the person I talked to at BPO said that most sensates don't want to give birth to a cluster until they're pretty secure in their lives. There are, apparently, tens of thousands of sensates, but most of them are younger than us. Something to do with the some guy named Whispers getting taken out, so more people felt comfortable giving birth," Mia answers.

"What do you mean, taken out?" Imann can't help  but ask.

"Someone said something about a rocket launcher at that point, I don't even know." says Mia.

A rocket launcher. Of course there's a rocket launcher. Why wouldn't there be a rocket launcher?

"Anyways," Mia continues, getting them back on track, "Daya, that's the pharmacist, is working on a list of which sensates over the age of 16 have been on blockers since we became linked until now. Apparently people aren't usually on them for more that like, a week at a time, so it shouldn't be too difficult."

"Cool." Imann replies. "Keep me in the loop? I had to give my brother his textbooks back, but I wrote down most of the important stuff."

"Will do and good to know.")

The timing works out nicely, Imann is fully back in Utrecht just as Engel stops by with a cheerful "Hi!"

They all greet her, Imann included. She's feeling for charitable towards Engel at the moment, what with all the reconciliations going on. She figures she might as well join the club. Engel had been making progress, after all, and no one changes overnight. Don't get her wrong, she's still not thrilled, but baby steps are still steps. Liv invites Engel to Isa's after school, but apparently Engel has plans with Olivia and and Tess. As part of her newly formed resolution to meet Engel halfway on things that aren't Islamophobia, Imann resists the urge to roll her eyes. She continues to resist the urge throughout the conversation about Talinn planning -seriously, why are they still even going to Talinn, Engel is the one who picked it and she isn't even with them anymore-and ends up being glad she did as Engel leaves. She looks like a lost puppy trailing after the other girls; she doesn't need Imann being a bitch too.

There's a moment of silence, and then Janna shrugs and Imann goes, "Well that was something," and then they go back to the music.

* * *

Emma really, really isn't paying attention as she heads up the stairs on her way to class. Between the whole weird scene at lunch and the level she's trying to beat on her phone, she collides with some random stranger on the landing. Honestly, its probably a miracle that it didn't happen sooner. The apology dies on her lips though, when she sees that its Yann.

"Hi."

"Hi."

"You should be careful."

"You're the one who should be careful!" she responds, and it almost feels like they're approaching some semblance of normal.

"How's Lucas?" she asks because she knows Marti is a wreck so Lucas can't be much better.

"Fine, but call him. He'd seriously appreciate it." Yann tells her.

"I'm sorry, I've just been so busy lately," she tells him.

She doesn't know how it was that Lucas didn't sell her out; it isn't like he had someone in his ear to tell him not to, but she's grateful nonetheless. He's a good friend, and she owes him that friendship in return.

"Not even time for a little message or something like that?" Yann presses.

"I'll send one soon," she promises.

It feels like they're going to make it out of this whole interaction relatively unscathed, when Alex and Charles come through the door. And of course Alex has to be an asshole, and of course Yann has to rise to the bait, and of course they're scuffling in the middle of the hallway. Charles rolls his eyes, but separates them almost immediately.

("Thank goodness," Magnus remarks drily, "I'm getting tired of always having to be the one to break up fights.")

"Why aren't you helping me?" Alex demands of Charles, which is honestly what Emma is wondering too.

"Dude, you hooked up with his girl. If I were him, I would have killed you.'

(Mia sniffs a bit at the idea of belonging to someone, but she's already rushing to meet Hanna to make sure she's ok so Emma knows she's mostly just happy that the fight got broken up as quickly as it did.)

Yann is glaring at her now, and Emma tries to apologize, but the tentative peace over caring about Lucas has been shattered. Her voice trails off, and Yann picks up his bag and heads to class without saying another word.

* * *

Magnus packed his lunch today, so he's enjoying it with obnoxious gusto while the others complain about how expensive prices are at the school cafe. He's distracted, however, by Iben approaching Eva in the line to buy food. Like he told Emma, he doesn't need to break up _another_ fight. However, that doesn't seem to be how its going at all. Instead, the girls are smiling at each other, and if what's happening with Emma is happening here, Eva is getting a party invite. A no-third-year-boys-allowed party invite no less, which sounds like a pretty great idea to Magnus.

("Paaaaartayyyyyy," says Imann.)

Apparently though, younger guys are allowed, and Magnus' phone buzzes with a text from Eva.

"Hey, there's a party on Friday at Iben's. The older guys aren't allowed in so you guys might stand a chance," it reads.

Magnus can see that she also sent it to Mahdi and Isak. He catches Isak's eye for a moment, and the blonde gives him a tiny, chagrined smile, but shrugs.

"Sure, sounds like fun" Magnus texts back.

"Do we have to bring anything?" Isak types.

"I think we're going to order pizza, so maybe some money to contribute?"

"Okay, sounds good!"

"Should we bring our own drinks?" Mahdi adds to the chat.

"I think Iben is planning on having stuff there, but if you want something specific you can totally bring it along,"

"Are your friends going to be there," Magnus asks.

"Are you going to question me about every detail of this party," Eva replies, teasing, "But yes, my friends are going to be there."

"I promise that was the last one haha. Thanks for answering."

"Yeah, yeah. See you Friday!"

"See you Friday!"

Magnus smiles the rest of the way through lunch. If Eva's friends are coming, then that means Vilde will be at the party.

* * *

Apparently, the "all girls party," in Austin actually means "all girls," because Tyler didn't get a text inviting him to show up as a token guy. Granted, Shay didn't get an invite either, which Tyler can tell from the way she keeps glancing down at her phone.

"Do you think she thinks it was me?" Shay asks him.

"Nah, Meg knows you're a better friend than that. You're the one who's been there for her all this time,"

"But what if she thinks I was after Marlon or something?"

"Honestly, I think she was too worried about his getting back with Abby to worry about anyone else. You're not after Marlon, right?" He asks, just to see her smile.

She half pushes him out of his chair instead, and he shoves her back. They spend a while just going back and forth like that, messing around like they did before the whole world got shot to hell in a hand basket. He's feeling so comfortable, actually, that he thinks it might be time to start telling her about the sensate thing, especially now that they actually know what's going on. On the other hand, maybe he should wait and tell her and Marlon at the same time? It would kinda be unfair to him if Shay knew but he didn't; they're both his best friends.

He doesn't realize he's gotten so out of it until he realizes Shay is calling his name.

"Hellooooo, earth to Tyler, anyone home?"

"Yep, I'm here, just zoned out for a minute."

"Can't blame you. Ugh. I can't believe we're only sophomores. Can you believe we have to be stuck here for another two whole years after we finish this one?"

"Yo it sucks. I have to see your ugly mug every day,"

"You're the fuckin' worst. Why do I put up with you?"

"For my mad guitar skills. Obviously."

"OK, I guess that that makes sense."

Tyler is about to find some snarky retort for that when their banter is interrupted by Shay's phone buzzing. He leans over her shoulder to read the text from Meg.

"Hey, I'm sooo sorry, I thought I texted you. We're having a party at Josefina's next week. You should totally come! No Tyler or Marlon though, girls only."

"Fuckin's rude," he comments, "What's wrong with boys?"

"So, so much," Shay replies, but she's smiling for the rest of lunch.

* * *

 

Marie knows how to throw a party, Britt will say that. So do Iben and Alice and Anna and Camille. After all of this time spending parties crashing into each other and fighting, its amazing to actually be able to enjoy the music and the dancing. Britt drinks wine in Paris, wears a funny hat in Oslo, and eats birthday cake in Rome. When she isn't bouncing around herself, she's sharing candy with Jana on Marie's couch, while Magnus samples various Belgian drinks and Tyler despairs over not being able to play beer pong since he claims he would smoke anyone else at the party. Britt promises him that she'll step up to the table later and let him have a shot at it.

Tyler himself and Jorge are the only ones not physically at their respective parties, but Tyler has taken out his guitar and is running through some of his favorite songs, and Jorge is at a football match so he's definitely having a fun night as well.

Britt doesn't know how it happens, but somehow, Mia picks the same song for karaoke in Berlin as Luca does in Belgium. It comes on the speakers at Jorge's game, and on the playlist at the parties where Imann and Emma and Marti and Magnus are, and Tyler sighs deeply and rolls his eyes but starts to play along as well.

"I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined," Luca starts.

"I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned," Mia picks up from Britt's head.

The pre-chorus starts and more people join in.

("Liv has a gorgeous voice, would love to work with her sometime," Tyler comments to Imann.

"I don't know how we would work that out but it would definitely be awesome" she replies.)

Tyler isn't singing himself, just playing, and Jorge is more humming under his breath than anything, out of breath as he chases after the ball. But in Antwerp and Rome and Utrecht and Paris and Oslo and Berlin, there must be more than a hundred people singing along as they hit the chorus of the song. Its amazing. The eight cluster members, six of the eight Britts, and so many more all singing together, joyful and loud as anything. They're under the stars in Rome, and the vanilla candles in Oslo are perfuming the air.

When the song is over, there's a gigantic toast, and Britt is smiling so hard she can't feel her cheeks as she says cheers with both the girls in the room and her cluster all over the world. She catches Emma's eye in Paris, and they find each other in real life, squeezing into snapchat frames and giggling over filters together.

("Wait! I want to be in that!" Mia protests

"Same here!" says Imann, so they pause for  minute and squish themselves on to couches and then they take more pictures

 "You know, Lucas is at the party, and you did say you would talk to him," Britt tells Emma once they're done with the pictures. "You were strong enough to talk to me, so you're strong enough to help him with whatever he's going through.")

Janna seems to notice Robbe at about the same time that Emma takes the advice, Marti can see Eva coming his way, and Britt pulls Sarah over to the beer pong table so she can fulfill that promise that she made to Tyler.

* * *

Elia and Pecci leave to go get beers just as Eva makes her way up on to the van top.

"So, how are you doing?" she asks him.

"A little better," he tells her truthfully.

"I'm glad. I have good news too!"

"Yeah? What happened? Your boobs grew up?"

Eva giggles and shoves at him before she speaks.

"No, but Gio and I might have. I think we're going to give us a second try."

There's a whole mess of feelings in his mind. There's still the jealousy, of course, and the tiniest note of anger. But there's happiness there too, and hope. That messes are not unfixable. That people can come back together. That there can be forgiveness for mistake made.

"He didn't tell me."

"I know."

He tells her congratulations, and that he's happy for her, and he means it.

"Anyways," she goes on, "I just wanted to say thank you. I swear, i don't know what I would have done without you."

"It was nothing, I did it because I care about you two," he replies, which is ignoring the fact that at the time, it was one of the hardest decisions he's ever made to keep his mouth shut.

"I wanted to apologize too." Eva continues, and wow, that's unexpected.

"At first, when I found out everyone knew, I thought it was your fault. I made horrible assumptions that because you were gay, you would be jealous or something, and try to ruin me and Gio. That's part of why i didn't message you or anything. And then Alice told me it was just some random stranger who turned in the tip, I felt even worse, I felt so guilty, so I still didn't talk to you. And I definitely didn't want to tell Gio that I had thought that, so I made up the excuse about being busy."

And that's-wow. That's really unexpected. He can't really be mad at her for thinking it though, when he really did consider it, and he figures he owes it to her to tell her so.

"I was jealous," he says. "I was, and I even considered doing what you said. But I just couldn't. I know me and Gio are never going to be together and it wasn't worth it to split you up just so I could pretend there was a chance. And every time we've talked since then, I've been glad I didn't do it. But I figure you deserve to know. That maybe in a worse universe than this one, I did."

Eva is crying by the time he finishes, but she scoots her way across the last foot for space between them, and then she's in his arms.

"You didn't though. Not in this universe. And I'm so glad. I couldn't have lost another friend."

They stay wrapped in each other's arms until her phones rings with the Silvia Emergency and he helps her get down from the van.

"Eva," he calls, once she's on the ground.

"Yeah?"

"I'm really proud to have you as a friend."

"Me too."

* * *

 

 Kiki is beyond drunk when she shows up to karaoke. She looks great, Mia notices absentmindedly, but she can't walk a straight line, can barely stand upright. Mia can feel the joy of the "Unwritten" singalong and the happiness of Marti and Emma at making up with Eva and Lucas dimming as Kiki stumbles on to the stage and takes the mic from Amira. She's loud and off-key and very clearly not okay. She collapses towards the end of the song, and Mia has no idea what's going on, which is a more and more unusual feeling these days, but she's up in an instant.

Together, she, Amira, Sam, and Hanna -who, from what Mia can tell, has made up with Matteo- get Kiki first to the bathroom, then to a cab, then to Mia's room. Mia gets her into a sleep shirt, and uses Kiki's thumbprint to get her into her phone and send an "I'm safe," message to her mother.

She waits then, until she gets "home safe" texts from Amira and Sam.

She takes off her makeup, changes into pajamas, and ignores the text from Alex.

("That's going to come back to bite you," Emma predicts, and Mia knows she's probably right, but she's also too tired to deal with it right now.)

She lies awake and stares at the ceiling, worrying about Kiki. Worrying about all of these lovely, sweet girls with blonde hair and big eyes and soft hearts and who are so much like she used to be. She wants to protect them from the world, but she can't, she just has to be there to catch them when they fall.

Mia thinks about the other Mias, lying awake in their beds. About all of these girls who have been hurt and hurt themselves just like her; she knows there's no use denying it now. She thinks about Imane in France and Yasmina in Belgium, not allowed to wear their hijabs in school because of hate, and she thinks about Amira and the rest girls who can wear them all the time, and all that they deal with. She thinks about Marti, in all his permutations, scared of the reactions of their families and the world. She thinks about the weights that they all carry, the ways that they bear their burdens. She wonders if maybe Kiki wouldn't have puked if she had had more to eat that day.

(Magnus lies next to her, on the other side from Kiki.

"She's going to be okay." He tells her.

"How do you know?"

"Because you made it through. And you're going to help her. And we're going to help you."

"Am I ok? Some days, I'm not so sure."

"You're ok." Emma says, joining them.

She slots in between Kiki and Mia, and Mia trades places with her for a bit, looking over Manon, Daphne, Imane, and Alexia, and knowing that they have each other too.

"And on the days when you're not, we can help you just with you, too." Magnus adds.

"Thank you.")

They stay with her until she gets the "I'm safe" text from Hanna, and finally goes to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’ve been through all the characters so I figured I'd give you a glimpse at the writing process. I start by opening a tab for each version. The episode of OG matches the chapter number, but the rest I play by ear. This has become especially true as we reach the end of the story, since different versions have different season lengths. I also open this story in 2 tabs, one for writing and one for reference, and a chart with all of the character alignments. All told: 11 tabs up top. Then, I skim the OG episode and line it up with the other versions to decide who’s perspective we’ll get for each clip. For characters who aren’t as visible, I try to figure out where their voice will be most helpful, and use those characters in quiet moments to incorporate learning about sensate stuff. Then, it’s a matter of watching and rewatching scenes and actually writing everything out. Parenthesis, obviously, are for sharing/visiting moments, while dashes are side thoughts of our POV-of-the-scene. Finally, I read back over the chapter to write my summary, and title from SKAM episode titles and a Sense8 episode title.


	11. stupid choice/ ending/ leave/break through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are a lot of hard conversations to get through, but in the end, things might just be OK. Or...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm SO SORRY that this took so long but um...its here now? enjoy? And THANK YOU to everyone who has come along for the ride, it means the world to me. (especially since I don't own anything)

Imann goes back to her own house for the night, but her sleep is restless, too much worry in her head. When Isa's "we're making pancakes" text arrives, she gets ready, makes a quick pharmacy stop for a pregnancy test, and drives over while ignoring every speed limit sign she sees. Once she's parked, she texts Isa again, and the other girl tosses down the key. In short order, she has supplied herself with pancakes and fresh fruit and coffee, and then she goes back into the bedroom, where Engel is most of the way to awake and they are retracing last night.

But no one can seem to spit it out.

"Guys, don't be so childish," Imann finally says. "Do you remember what you said yesterday, Engel?"

The blonde nods.

"Is it true?" Imann asks.

Another nod, and another, and another and...a head shake. She hasn't taken a test yet. Imann is glad she picked up the test.

("Can't they be wrong sometimes?" asks Tyler

"The error rate is very low.")

But still, she worries as she stands outside of the bathroom door with the other girls. None of them ask how Janna knows so much about how to properly take a pregnancy test.

"Engel are you ok?" she asks, when it feels like its been too long.

"I eh...I think something is wrong."

"Wrong?" Janna asks, and Imann is glad she doesn't have to as she feels Mia, Emma, and Magnus' hearts drop along with hers.

There's still mascara all over Engel's face as she comes out of the bathroom, and she's sniffling again.

"All of a sudden there was blood everywhere" she says.

"Engel...didn't you just get your period?"

And the tension breaks as they collapse in semi-hysterical giggles.

* * *

Marti is standing with Elia when the two people go up to Eva and Eleonora to talk about the party, and both of them snicker a bit as they fake-nod their way through the conversation about the pre-party with only a few seats left that they are _totally_ going to make it to.

Then of course, the guy sees them -how the _hell_ does he know Elia's last name- and starts trying to rope them into it. More interesting, however, is the new conversation that the girls have found themselves in, Edoardo having approached them.

(Mia is groaning, since apparently Alexander has spotted her, and Emma and Manon have apparently run smack into Charles.)

Eleonora speaks fairly loudly, so he can make out the occasional word as he reads Edoardo's responses from his lips. Between the three versions, he manages to catch the gist of the conversation.

(Emma is very impressed with Manon's deadpan delivery of her "2 weeks of dead battery" excuse, and Marti has to agree)

Edo has apparently found Elle's full name, and he's not going to give up until he gets a date. It's a nice try, if a little creepy, but Marti doubts he's going to get anywhere. Sure enough:

"Are you done?" all three girls ask at once

(and there's a collective shudder because honestly its just _weird_ when things line up that closely)

and

Elia says something to Marti about the party people, who have bounded off to their next target. Marti misses most of whatever happens next, but the word "beautiful" comes out of Edoardo's mouth. He can't see Elle's face but there's a huge grin on Edo's.

(Manon looks stunned, and Emma exchanges a glance with him before breaking her out of her reverie. Mia is suspiciously quiet.)

Eva, meanwhile, is dragging Elle out of her own trance and off to wherever they're going, and Marti goes back to talking with Elia about setting up a pregame of their own for this Friday. He has a feeling though, that they haven't seen the last of Edoardo yet, and everyone seems to agree.

* * *

Fresh off yet another encounter with Axel, or whatever his name is,

("Really?" Britt comments, and the problem with having people in your head is that you can't really lie to yourself anymore)

Mia joins Kiki in the nurse's office to see about this whole pregnancy fiasco. While she, personally, doesn't mind the nurse's teasing, it isn't what Kiki needs right now.

(Magnus is totally zoned out of the conversation with his friends in the courtyard, worried about Vilde. Emma is also in the office as Daphne gets her results, and Mia finds herself clutching the other girl's hand.)

Mia feels her heart stop when the nurse says "pregnant"

("But she can't be, that isn't how this works!" Imann replies, slightly out of control for the first time that any of them can remember. Nevermind that they don't really know how this works, they all took Engel's period as a sign that this was going to work out ok. Now everything is in  turmoil and Magnus is even more worried about Vilde, and Emma is practically hyperventilating as they wait for Daphne's results and...)

"Is what you're not!" Says the nurse, and there's a collective gasp of relief.

Kiki keeps asking questions though, obviously still anxious, and Mia is grateful when the nurse wheels out from behind her desk and drops the joking demeanor. She presses at Kiki's stomach, not seeming surprised when the blonde confirms the pain.

(Imann thinks: missed period, and, Emma heard Daphne puking, and, Mia was right)

Kiki hems and haws her way around the question and Mia wishes she has been wrong. But the nurse is telling Kiki about how to have a healthy diet, and she feels better. They found this much sooner in Kiki. Kiki is going to be okay. Daphne is going to be ok. Engel and Vilde and all the others are going to be ok. Mia is going to be ok herself, and honestly, she's glad she was there for this because as much as she's back on track, it never hurts for someone like her to hear again that its important to eat.

She's even more grateful when the nurse hands over an apple for Kiki and a banana for her, and when Tyler says "no." as she starts to think about the numbers.

* * *

Emma knows that she's the one who picked this time and place, but it doesn't mean she wants to have this conversation. Even though Lucas didn't sell her out, he did still consider it, assuming parallels are holding, and he still lied to her at the cabin and she really does have so many finals to study for...

"When I asked you if Ingrid and Yann were texting, did you lie?"

("You're a bit dumb for trying to small talk," she tells Marti with a sigh

"I know I just..." he trails off as Eva calls him on it too)

"I knew he was talking to Ingrid." Lucas confirms, "But it really was just to get to her brother,"

"As if that makes it any better!" She bursts out, frustrated. "As if it somehow makes it okay that you've all just been lying to me about doing drugs since...summer?"

"Summer," Lucas (and Marti) confirm.

Emma puts a bunch of things together really quickly.

"You were high at the cabin? While I was there? That's why he came by?"

Lucas nods in confirmation. They go over a few other incidents, some Lucas knew about, some he didn't, (Marti is glad they're doing this now, drunk at the party would not have ended well,) but the conclusion here, for Emma at least, is that her boyfriend has been doing drugs, using his ex to do it, lying to her about it, and convincing their friend to lie about it too. She says as much to Lucas, who agrees with the assessment.

"You didn't tell him about the kiss because you're a good friend. Why did tell me not to tell him either? It could have broken us up."

"It still wouldn't have made Yann any gayer," Lucas says with a sigh. "And besides, you said it yourself. It was one little kiss. If you had told him yourself , he would have forgiven you. He loves you."

("You did tell me to ask Laura if they were together. You knew what she would do" Eva calls him out, and Marti winces because he didn't, not really.)

Emma, at least skips that question, she knows that its not worth asking.

(Britt is...not quite contrite.)

"I know he loves me." Emma says (Eva says), after a long pause.

("I know you love me," Jorge says.)

"I'm just not sure if that's enough anymore."

"I didn't want to hurt you." Lucas says.

"I know."

And she does. Because he didn't sell her out. Because he did comfort her. But he did lie. And so the pain is still there.

* * *

 

 He thinks maybe he's going crazy when Eva appears at the game, and then he plays what is possibly the best game of his life, and revels in her smiles. He knows, in his gut, he's not going to have a lot more of them left.

When the game ends and he's staring at her through the bars, there's nothing to say and so the walk together until they meet at the end. He feels...calm.

(Emma has texted Yann and...calm. Everyone else has taken a step back.)

They talk for a little bit, and then kiss like something is breaking. Something _is_ breaking. They're breaking. They climb the stairs next to the hard packed cement near where the game was, covered in graffiti and he thinks that they don't have spray paint but this is them leaving their mark on this place.

"Do you remember the first time we kissed?" he asks her. (He and emma ask it together.)

He tells her the story, of being drunk and scared and waiting for a sign. Of wanting, desperately, a sign. A song on the radio. One that didn't come, and maybe he should have taken the hint from the universe right then and there, he thinks but doesn't say.

("I'm glad you didn't" Emma tells him. And she thinks: there's something nice about going back to the beginning when you know you're at the end. She didn't know his side of their first kiss before. She's glad she knows it now.)

Because then she kissed him. Because she couldn't help herself.

"Do you love me?" he asks.

"That isn't the problem. The problem is that I gave up my life for you."

"So this is my fault?"

"No. No, this is my fault. But you keep telling me that I don't make my own decisions when I made the hardest one I ever have when I chose you. And then you were the only thing I had left, so I had to keep choosing you. Your opinions, your friends, how you wanted to spend your time. Because if I didn't choose you, I'd be alone. And i thought that I deserved that, because of what I did to Ines."

"Do you regret me?"

"Never."

"So do you think maybe we've learned our lesson?"

Eva (and Emma) smile, and its the saddest one he's ever seen.

"I don't think it matters," she tells him. "Because right now, I need to remember how to make decisions again. I need to remember how to be me. Just me. And I need to do that alone."

(He and Emma trade, just for a second. Its his resolve that keeps her in place long enough for Yann to gather her into his arms. Its her desperation that pulls Eva into his. Then they switch back.)

* * *

A little while after he and Shay get to the carnival, they get a text.

"Hey, where are you guys at?"

Tyler replies, and Marlon finds them fairly quickly. If Tyler lets his side hug linger for a second longer, he's pretty sure Marlon won't notice, and Shay certainly doesn't say anything about it. He's a little quieter than usual throughout the night, but neither Tyler nor Shay are idiots, and so they goof around trying to cheer Marlon up when they're together, and give him space when they want to go on rides.

("Thanks dude," Jorge says to him and to Magnus and Marti, who are basically striking the same balance.)

He and Marlon both need to run to the porta potties after that, and Shay has no desire to be any closer to the stench than needed so she lingers behind. When he gets back, Megan  is there and the atmosphere is palpably awkward so he does what he does best and ignores it.

"Sup? Have you dingleberries seen Marlon anywhere?"

"I mean, he's somewhere around here," Megan replies, glancing around.

Its such a change from her freaking out that he isn't by her side that he almost doesn't know what to say so he switches to talking to Shay about all of his prizes. She skips out though, so he's left with Megan which is...something. He appreciates her telling her himself about the breakup, he supposes, but he pantomimes shock because he thinks maybe he'll make her laugh. It kinda does, but it also makes her ask if he hates her and oooh boy. There's a rabbit hole here he does not want to go down.

("You'll have to eventually," Magnus points out, and Tyler sticks his tongue out because he kows that, he just doesn't want it to be right now.)

They're at an impasse when Grace skips over and he was always going to give her the phone but it is fun to mess with the girls a bit. And then he really does see Marlon so he heads over and revels in having someone new to show off his loot to.

* * *

Britt...isn't quite sure how to feel about the breakup. She knows she should feel satisfied, or smug, or something like that. But so much has happened that, though she's definitely happy not to have to see them kissing all over the school anymore, she's kind of ambivalent about it over all. She's such a different person, well, she's several different people, from who she used to be. She's learning that that's a good thing.

She and Sarah pregame together before they head over to the Christmas party, which is lovely and glowing in the cold. They stop to grab dumb headbands and gifts as soon as they get there, then start trying to find a table. They go past Jana with a couple of her new friends on the way, and pause.

"Merry Christmas," She tells her old friend.

"Happy new year!" The redhead replies, gathering her into a hug.

Jana's hugs have always been lovely, and even after she pulls away with a quick "bye" to the other girls, she still feels the warmth.

"Are you two friends again?" Sarah asks as they find a table and start texting the other girls where they are.

"We're getting there" Britt answers.

(Emma drops by, just for a second, to squeeze her tight.)

* * *

Magnus opts to grab a cider -hot, only slightly spiked,- as he and Mahdi wander through the Christmas party. They find Isak pretty quickly, and the three of them are talking when Eva comes up to say hello and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and Jonas And I Broke Up.

"Are you gonna be ok?" Isak asks her, and she answers in the affirmative.

Before they can say much more though, Noora arrives and there's another round of hugs and greetings before the blonde asks if anyone has seen Vilde.

Magnus bites back an "I wish" to shake his head, and Noora starts the phone hunt. He's about to offer his when Isak hands one over, then unlocks it for them. It's another step towards true peace between him and Eva, both of them smiling into their scarves. Ingrid pops over next to say "Merry Christmas," so its definitely a night for making up. She even hugs all of the guys too, while Noora paces and tries to remember Vilde's number. After Ingrid wanders away though, Eva spots the blonde, beckoning her over. More hugs, more gentle ribbing, and then William Magnusson shows up with an apology and Vilde looks so, so happy and Magnus' heart breaks a little but her smile is worth it.

Noora comes back as Vilde heads off, and he knows he shouldn't be eavesdropping but it really doesn't feel like eavesdropping when Emma (and Manon) and Mia (and Hannah) are having the same conversation as the one that is happening in earshot. He follows their line of sight from the phone to where Isak has found Jonas and...oh boy.

("Whelp..." Britt observes. "This ought to be fun.")

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOHOO WE MADE IT!!!!!! A huge thank you to everyone who has stuck with me and read this story. No matter where you came from, I’m glad you ended up here. It’s been a heck of a journey (Imann’s moments of frustration with the spreadsheet are mine shining through,) but I’m glad I took the plunge and fed the plot bunny. I must admit that I have started thinking over a season 2 version of this story. All 8 skams do have a season 2. Would you read it? Is it worth making this into a series? Sound off in the comments, and either way, its been so great meeting so much of my “SKAMily” through this story <3

**Author's Note:**

> The original idea was to do all 8 of one character, but the whole point of sense8 is different personalities coming together, so I switched it to a different character from each version. 
> 
> Also, yes, im pretty much ignoring time zones. Leave me aloneeeeee, sense8 canon didn't exactly pay a ton of attention to them.


End file.
